Infinite Messaging to The Endgame
by MissCar
Summary: The best way to communicate in an emergency is via text. Thanos bent on wiping out half of the universe is an emergency. What's easier, stopping him from wiping out half the universe, undoing the damage he already caused in one timeline where he succeeded, or getting that Tony & Steve to get their ship together? 2 timelines, 1 mission, & an infinite amount of text messaging
1. Prologue: Through the looking glass

Title: Infinite Messaging to The Endgame

Part three of the Use Your Words universe. Sequel to I Hope You Have Unlimited Text Messaging and Text Messages from the Edge of High school. Although you can continue reading without having read Text Messages from the Edge, it's beneficial if you have. Don't you want to know why MJ and Flash are friends now?

Summary: They say that the best way to communicate in an emergency is via text message. A giant purple alien bent on wiping out half of the universe's population with the help of six infinity stones qualifies as an emergency. This fact is even more apparent now that Laura Barton is currently trapped in a timeline where that happened because the Avengers (read: Tony and Steve) never mended fences. Now the last remnants of those Avengers are trying to fix what happened. What's going to be easier, stopping Thanos from wiping out half the universe with the infinity stones, undoing the damage he already caused in another timeline where he succeeded, or getting that timeline's Tony and Steve to get their shit together? Two timelines, one mission, and an infinite amount of text messaging.

Beta: The fabulous Ursula

Rating: T for canon level violence, serious discussions about depression and substance abuse as well as past child abuse, and Tony Stark's dirty mouth. Although I don't write sex scenes. Besides, we are going to be a bit busy with Thanos, and I'm not sure anybody will have time to get off. I'm sure the teenagers will try at least.

I don't think this is going to be M unless I get "fun" artwork like last time. Although Tony does have a dirty mouth and Loki is in this story. Be prepared for a possible increase in rating at some point.

Continuity: A simultaneous remix of Infinity War and Endgame with a little Ragnarok and Ant-Man And The Wasp thrown in for flavor. All things infinity Saga are fair game. Also, any flashbacks to pre-infinity Saga events that happened in phase 4 will be used. We're probably going to end up not being compliant with Ms. Marvel, but considering Hydra Lullaby ended up being compatible with Endgame and season five of AOS despite the fact I started writing on the story five years previously anything is possible.

I am considering season six of AOS as happening in an alternate timeline where the snap doesn't occur due to monolith shenanigans (it's the easiest way to reconcile everything). However, I will be drawing inspiration from Simmons' characterization during AOS season six. Also, anything from season six that refers to something that happened before the timeline divided is fair game.

Welcome to the first chapter of Infinite Messaging to The End Game. Please always keep your legs and arms in the car. Things are about to get crazy.

There's probably going to be more in-person conversations in the story than in I Hope You Have Unlimited Text Messaging. The structure is going to be closer to the first story, but some conversation chapters may have a short text exchange from a different group. Unlike in the first story, text message chapters will be labeled as conversations even though they don't necessarily take place between Tony and Steve. There will also be rapid Avenger report chapters. Essentially this is the story of how the infinity Saga ends with a Steve and Tony that have worked through their shit. Let's see how it goes because it can't be worse. Right?

Warning: There will be character death. It may not be the same characters that died during the Infinity Saga or season five of AOS, but be prepared. As much as I would love for everybody to survive the purple one, I knew there would have to be consequences. Thanos is too big for us to get out completely unscathed. Maybe we should start a dead pool.

Reminders: Tony's AI is Ana because Friday is now a teenage LMD named Afia. Basically, I accidentally wrote MCU Pinocchio. I'm not sorry.

Also, for those of you that skipped over Text Messages from The Edge of High School, Flash and Peter are on much better terms because somehow Flash ended up being Afia's best friend. She has a soft spot for rich non-heterosexual assholes with daddy issues who hide behind their bravado. Flash and Ned still hate each other with a fiery passion. Also, Peter realized he is at least a Kinsey 2.

Some of this first chapter will look familiar to some of you because it was in the sneak peek added to text messages from the Edge. However, this will go longer in that section.

* * *

**Prologue: Laura Through the Looking Glass**

After being married to a Shield agent for well over a decade and now being an agent herself for over a year, Laura has seen a lot of crazy stuff. However, having her estranged husband show up unexpectedly in her apartment at the Avenger compound was not something she was expecting at all.

It was mostly because of the teleportation aspect of it. One minute Laura was alone, and the next, he was standing in front of her and attempting to hug her. It was very disconcerting.

There's also the fact that this Clint was covered in tattoos and had ridiculous hair. She hasn't seen Clint since he picked up Nikki for his time with the baby back in February. Laura is pretty sure one of the kids would've mentioned dad's new tattoos after their numerous video calls with their father. They talked to the man almost daily during their trial separation.

The constant crying also makes her extremely suspicious. That alone is why she text messaged Tony. Ok, the fact that he said he is from the year 2023 and asked why she is not at the farmhouse made her message Tony and send out an Avenger alert. Her real husband knows full well that she hasn't been back to her former home since Ross arrested (kidnapped) her from it almost 2 years prior. Something was obviously wrong.

Thankfully, years as a mom and a guidance counselor made her an expert at typing one-handed while cuddling someone crying. You'll be amazed at how often she had to utilize this skill before.

Counselor Laura: So not to alarm you, but a version of my estranged husband just popped up in my living room with a new tattoo that covers most of his arm and midlife crisis hair. He also says that he is from the year 2023.

Counselor Laura: He also won't stop hugging me or crying.

Boss Tony: That is concerning. Ana says that Clint is currently sitting on the couch of the new Malibu house with Nikki. Apparently, they are now blueberries on the ceiling because lunch went badly.

Counselor Laura: Yet he's here, and he says he's from five years in the future. Is this Leopold all over again?

Boss Tony: He could be an imposter. It wouldn't be the first time because, apparently, shape-shifting aliens exist.

Counselor Laura: Are you saying that this Clint could be an alien imposter like the "Ian Quinn" that turned out to be an alien imposter?

However, right as Laura pressed the send button, she saw a flash of light and felt as if her whole body shrinking. Moments later, it was over, and she found herself in the lab section of the Avenger compound. Except it didn't look like the lab space now. One, there were nowhere near as many teenage friendly science experiments. The kids had their own space.

Instead, there was a van parked in the middle of their usual lab space, and standing next to it was Scott. Although she hasn't met the man in person, Sharon has given her many updates on her charge, complete with pictures, so she instantly recognized the man. What was he doing on the East Coast? His house arrest wasn't up for a few more weeks.

Laura also recognized Simmons and May in the room. Of course, this Simmons was dressed in all black and seemed colder for some reason. She also saw Steve. Thankfully there was a wedding ring on his finger, so at least that was reassuring. At least it was reassuring if Laura did not acknowledge the fact that the wedding was not happening for another month. Also, his beard was gone, and he was back to being blonde.

She also sees Bruce on the platform, except he is now Hulk size and staring at her in complete bewilderment. The fact that he's there at all surprises her because he hasn't been seen since about two days after he and the rest of the Avengers crashed her old farmhouse back in April 2015. She was starting to believe that maybe this was 2023. This was all very weird. What the hell was going on?

"You weren't supposed to bring her back to 2023." She hears May chastise the not her husband, who might be her husband in the future. Because apparently, she really is in the future. Maybe they were divorced because there's no way she would allow Clint to have that hair if they were still married.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked her as he pulled her away from Clint. She could see Natasha now. She now had an arm around Clint or at least was trying to. He pushed her away. Of course, this Natasha had red hair again with blonde ends.

"I'm fine. What's going on?" Laura asked, but nobody answers her. Everybody's attention is focused on May and Simmons.

"Actually, that was the plan. Our plan, anyway." Simmons explained, and May's eyes became filled with concern.

"What did you do?" May asked, the worry evident in her voice.

"Don't give me that look. Do you really think we're going to be able to find all the infinity stones and then magically snap our fingers and bring everybody back?" Simmons asked bitterly.

"Yes, actually." Laura heard Steve respond from beside her.

"Then you're delusional because that's just not feasible. At best, your plan was wishful thinking. We are low on Pym particles that we are unable to reverse engineer despite Deke being able to reverse engineer anything. Regardless of Bruce's help and Deke coming across some old notes on the SI servers, we barely figured out how to create a time guidance system. That's only because we had the residue energy from the monolith to help. No one else may be willing to admit it, but there's no way we're going to be able to reverse what Thanos did, but we could at least get Fitz and Laura back." May looks like she is near seconds from punching Simmons, but Steve quickly leaves Laura to physically hold May back.

"Take a moment." Laura hears Steve whisper. "She is still grieving."

"We are all still grieving. However, we've learned to move forward, but Simmons hasn't. That's not an excuse to be so obsessed about Fitz. You're being very selfish. You even risked your own grandson." Laura mumbles the word grandson under her breath as she continues to look on extremely confused. What the hell is going on here?

"He volunteered," Simmons argued. "And since Stark won't help us, maybe Fitz will when Deke brings him back." Okay, who is Deke? Laura thought to herself. "If anybody can reverse engineer the Pym particles, it's him.

"Except he's not here, and neither is Deke," May yelled back.

"Just because you moved on doesn't mean the rest of us have. We need Fitz, and I had to take this chance to bring him back."

"I've adapted to our current circumstances, but that doesn't mean I've given up hope. Robin says we can do this. I believe her. You could have Fitz back." At the name of the six-year-old, Laura almost relaxed.

"Not the one that was blown up by the monolith. Coulson and Yo-Yo died, and Daisy and Mack turned to dust; you married Captain bloody America and adopted two kids." Simmons yelled.

Laura realizes at those words she is not in Kansas, or rather her own timeline, anymore.

Before she could ask how she ended up in a world where Steve married someone who is not Tony, she heard her phone ping. Laura quickly moved to the side of the room to look at her phone in peace. Steve was too busy calming his wife down to pay attention to her.

Avengers Friday: The number you are trying to contact is no longer a member of the Avengers communication group. I can contact Mr. Stark directly if necessary if this is an emergency. Otherwise, I am not authorized to do so.

Counselor Laura: I think me being stuck in 2023 qualifies as an emergency. Why is Tony not a part of Avengers? Is it because Steve is now married to May? How did that happen? Also, where is Ana? Why aren't you Afia anymore?

Avengers Friday: I do not know who Ana and Afia are. Mr. Stark left the Avengers for health reasons after being stranded in space for 21 days with limited resources aggravated his heart condition. Therefore, he is not healthy enough to continue being Ironman. Although he occasionally serves as a consultant and babysits Robin when Steve and May need to both go on a mission together especially now that Kamala is at Vision Academy.

Counselor Laura: Please explain to me how that happened. I have so many questions and have no idea where to start

Avenger Friday: They renewed their acquaintance after Agent Coulson died in May 2018 post decimation. They married six months later so that Agent Melinda May-Rogers could get custody of a young inhuman girl named Kamala Khan, in addition to being able to keep Robin. Kamala was the cousin of a Shield agent who also disappeared during the decimation along with the rest of his family.

Counselor Laura: What happened to Polly?

Avenger Friday: Robin's biological mother was killed shortly before the decimation. Despite the vast number of children orphaned during the decimation, what was left of the infrastructure did not want to give a single woman with ties to a disgraced spy agency custody of two young children.

Counselor Laura: That doesn't surprise me. I assume that means Steve isn't a fugitive anymore because the Mumbai agreement went through.

Avenger Friday: VP Rhodes pushed personally for a pardon. I do not know this Mumbai agreement that you speak of.

Counselor Laura: I think I know the answer to this, but how did Tony and Steve's engagement end? Were they ever engaged or even dating? Did they even start speaking to each other again after the Siberia fiasco?

Avenger Friday: No, they did not until a dying Coulson contacted Tony shortly before the decimation. Tony and Steve were never engaged or even dated for that matter. Tony was engaged to Ms. Potts at the time of the decimation. Although they have yet to have the ceremony, they live in Pennsylvania with their four-year-old daughter Morgan. Technically his last name is now Potts-Stark but I prefer to still call him Mr. Stark. I can only describe Steve and Tony's relationship as complicated. However, their children enjoy regular play dates despite their age differences.

Laura was now 100% sure she was in a different timeline. For one thing, her May and Steve started talking to each other again in 2016, not 2018. That's not even mentioning Tony and Steve burying the hatchet the same year and getting engaged. Phil is alive and well in her timeline for another. Laura began to wonder if this was the timeline that James Leopold, a.k.a. other Fitz came from. Yes, she knows about the other Fitz as well as some of things that happened in the other timeline. She knows that Tony and Steve never reconciled there and Tony was about to marry Pepper before Leo was pushed back in time. Phil Coulson was dying. She knows that James Leopold mostly had a psychotic break because he was trying so hard to prevent the events that led to his terminal illness. Laura is also pretty sure she heard Simmons say that her Fitz died in a monolith explosion. That would be way too much of a coincidence to happen in two timelines.

Deke was apparently being sent back to keep that from happening, whoever Deke was. Instead, somehow, she ended up here, and he was missing.

Counselor Laura: Friday? I have one more question for you. What is this decimation that you keep referring to?

Avenger Friday: The Decimation refers to the events of April 28, 2018. Thanos was able to collect all six infinity stones and wiped 50% of all living life out of existence, including plants and animals. Although the Avengers were able to find Thanos and kill him, the stones were destroyed, and they were unable to reverse the decimation.

Clint's strange behavior from earlier began to make sense. Of course, he would act like that if she was essentially dead.

Counselor Laura: Friday, was I among those lost during this decimation?

Avenger Friday: Yes, along with your 3 children.

Laura would like to argue otherwise that she didn't lose consciousness while reading that message from Friday, but she would be lying. Wouldn't you pass out too if you found out you were trapped in a world where your kids were dead?

To be continued

* * *

So, as you can tell, the timeline that Fitz a.k.a. James Leopold came from is slightly different than what we saw in Endgame. A lot of it will be similar when it comes to characters like Thor and Bruce. Also, most of those lost in the decimation will be the same, but I felt Tony and Steve would be somewhat different, especially because I really wanted to incorporate the AOS characters (and my heart says this Pepper knows better). I'm viewing the Endgame timeline as what happens if the AOS characters stay trapped in the lighthouse timeline. There are so many timelines going on here. The multi-verse really is madness.

The next several chapters are already with my beta. I hope to update weekly, but we shall see. Let me know what you think and if you're excited for things to come.


	2. C1: Cuddle Bunny Text me Back

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the prologue. Also, thank you to everybody who left kudos or added the story to your alerts. I'm not sure what my regular posting day will be yet, so I do suggest adding the story to your alerts. Regardless, you are so fabulous.

A few notes, we will be switching back and forth between the "Tony and Steve have their ship together" timeline and the "Tony and Steve are still idiots" timeline. Which as you see so far is not quite the same as the way it was in Endgame cannon, such as the fact that Tony is not married, but Steve is. We will explore why that's the case as we go forward. I have my reasons for mixing things up a little bit.

To make things easier, I'm trying to come up with a way to differentiate between characters, especially in my A/Ns. So the Steve and Tony from we made better life choices timeline will be referred to as Tony and Steve Stark-Rogers or Tony SR and Steve SR. Although there will be some times in-story where Tony Stark Rogers will be referred to as just Director Stark. Apparently, he can't make his subordinates refer to him as his future married name until after the actual wedding. ATCU bureaucracy is annoying.

Tony and Steve from the "we made bad choices and therefore the purple one won" timeline will be referred to as Steve May-Rogers and Tony Stark-Potts (or some variation of that) or Steve MR and Tony SP. Even though Tony SP and Pepper SP never got married, Tony added the Potts last name just to fuck with Howard from the grave. Let's just say that Sharon never passed along Peggy's bequeathment, so Tony Stark-Potts has even more daddy issues than Tony Stark-Rogers.

The Melinda May from the "bad life choices timeline" will also be referred to as May-Rogers and sometimes just Mrs. Rogers or Melinda. I just realized I now have three Mays in this story. Why do I hate myself? Will there be a fourth? I am not telling yet, but I will try to be as clear as possible with which May I'm referring to and will try very hard not to write something where I am referring to all of them at the same time. I'm not that much of a masochist.

I'm planning for us to have shorter chapters again, which might mean weekly updates. I'm going to try at least.

Anthony love is Tony Stark-Rogers' current designation in his fiancé's phone. His current Avenger network callsign is Director Stark. TMNS is Peter. Also, in this timeline, it's Deputy Secretary of State James Rhodes.

Also, remember that nobody under 18 is referred to by their real name in the text messages. If they are, the AIs will remove the name. However, in this universe, Flash and Liz are over 18 by the time this chapter takes place.

I hope by the next chapter, these A/Ns will be significantly shorter.

* * *

**Conversation 1: Cuddle Bunny Text me Back When you get this**

Anthony love: So where exactly are you oh fiancé of mine? I haven't heard from you since we found out Coulson was being kidnapped by my soon to be very former Deputy Director.

Anthony love: BTW I have agents searching her home right now. I never trusted her. We're aware the president's choices in political appointments are shit outside of Platypus and his big boss.

Anthony love: It's been less than an hour, but I am concerned. Mainly because I've been informed that you're no longer actually on Earth as of five minutes ago.

Anthony love: Your lack of response is making me believe that you're no longer on Earth. With the Princess and little birds help theoretically, I've tapped into the interplanetary communications network, but there's a lag time.

Anthony love: You off-planet would concern me if the flaming head didn't possess the ability to make portals. I'm still trying to come up with a scientific explanation for him. No, I don't believe the "devil" gave him superpowers.

Anthony love: Unless he's referring to Ross as the devil. That explanation would almost be viable. You know he was using State Department funds to do who knows what before he got kicked out. Platypus and the new M are still trying to figure out all the ways he misappropriated funds.

Anthony love: I'm sure evil Ross's new "think tank" is probably funded by Watchdog sympathizers doing lots of crazy shit. I can't wait until he's arrested for fraud.

Anthony love: So, are the secret Avengers MIA because of Coulson, or did you fly off to Asgard to be part of the Calvary? I feel like that's something flaming head would do and only partially because Lilly's aunt made him.

Anthony love: Speaking of the Calvary, I barely was able to keep Agent America from flying over to Mumbai to get her boyfriend back. Although if I don't hear back from you by morning our time, I'm probably going to resort to using an Icer on her.

Anthony love: I feel like that would lead to a broken nose, and there's no way I'm risking that before the wedding.

Anthony love: Although maybe Agent America will go for a different body part then you. I feel there are some body parts that you would be really upset if she attacks.

Anthony love: PS that body part really misses you and is sad we probably won't even have time for a supply room handjob. We haven't been in the same country since Valentine's Day/Presidents' Day weekend. The finalization of the Mumbai agreement and getting Flash settled in his own apartment have been time-consuming.

Anthony love: So please hurry up and text me back. Because I do not want to deal with a pissed-off Agent May. I'm not 100% sure she'd ever forgiven Leo for icing her to prevent her from using the big book of evil everything.

Anthony love: I know you've been radio silent for less than an hour, but she's worried. You know we're all on edge because Robin keeps drawing pictures of doom, gloom, and a purple genocidal maniac.

Anthony love: Also, Laura just got kidnapped from the compound.

Anthony love: I realize now I probably should have led with that. I have other agents going there to deal with that. This may be the other reason why Agent America is concerned. Simultaneous kidnappings are never a good sign.

Anthony love: So, there is a chance we may be dealing with alien doubles again with teleporting abilities. Remind me again why I took this job? Oh yes, to get you back in the country.

Anthony love: You're the only thing worth this much craziness.

Anthony love: Hey sweetie pickle, I must go. Spidey senior is texting me on the Avenger line, but I will be back. Write me.

Anthony love: Like seriously, what the fuck is going on sugarplum?

* * *

TMNS: We're on our way to the Lighthouse because, apparently, we're not allowed to go to the compound per Ms. Marvel's cousin.

Director Stark: That would be because someone who looks a lot like Laura's husband teleported into the building about an hour ago and then teleported out with her. So, you are not going to the compound.

TMNS: We are aware.

Director Stark: Ms. Marvel and family are coming here. You know outside of the one cousin that's a Shield agent.

Director Stark: Along with Lily bear and the big brother. Also, I had to send Yo-Yo to tell Purple Arrow about what happened, and that's not going to be a pleasant conversation. But it's better than one of the kids video calling him. Lily really wants to talk to her dad right now.

TMNS: Since you're already bringing civilians into the lighthouse, this might be the time to tell you that Flash is with us. He kind of passed out, and Afia doesn't want to leave him alone in his apartment.

Director Stark: Why did Flash pass out? Was alcohol involved? I heard about the break-up. I knew we should have tried a more intensive rehab program with him, but he didn't want to miss school.

TMNS: Why did everybody know about the breakup before me? Also, no drinking. Although apparently vast quantities of ice cream were involved.

Director Stark: We have a secure Avengers/Shield chat group for it. Everybody hated his boyfriend. Although probably for different reasons than you did.

TMNS: We're friends, and [Redacted] can barely take that. I like MJ. I just don't want him to be with a dick. He deserves more than that.

Director Stark: Because you like him like you like MJ and not entirely sure how to process that. Please don't lie to yourself. It's annoying.

Director Stark: Also, MJ keeps getting you books on polyandry. I think she's trying to tell you something. Just take the third option.

Director Stark: Also, if I dated who my friends wanted me today, I would still be with Pepper. Maybe you should make your own choices.

TMNS: Flash passed out because he now knows my secret identity and that Afia is an LMD. He found out about that because she kind of passed out. Although Karen referred to it as data overload.

Director Stark: Kid, you should've led with that. Ana, why wasn't I informed?

TMNS: Your daughter is fine. She just doesn't remember the last two hours. The good news is Flash is conscious again. Piper is taking care of him.

Director Stark: Which explains why Agent Piper hasn't checked in. Ana still should've said anything, and she's not responding at all, my Ana anyway. The secret Avengers version has made contact. Why is my AI not responding?

TMNS: Karen says that she's busy processing the data that overloaded Afia. Karen is taking care of all necessary ATCU functions now. She's also trying to figure out how to deliver your messages to Steve. The estimated arrival time is three hours.

"Karen, thank you for stepping up. But what could be that overwhelming?" Tony said out loud, realizing per the emergency protocol created after the Princess and the Fitz twins turned Friday into a real girl, Karen was now the main Avenger AI. Avenger Ana was a separate system for Secret Avengers use.

"Possibly processing all the data related to our attempt at turning Pym Tech into a Time Machine. It didn't work because instead of ending up in our past, we ended up in a different timeline. Although it is 2018, so we are in the past. I think that's what Nana was going for since I did find Bobo. You're not necessarily my Bobo, but maybe her Bobo. The multi-verse is confusing. Maybe I should have talked to other Stark instead of just peeking at his private server for his time travel notes." The voice Tony heard was not Karen, but some unknown guy standing next to Leo and Hunter.

"Who are you?" Tony asked, confused, and concerned.

"According to a DNA scan, my step-grandson," Hunter replied nonplussed.

"I read that in your report, and I still find it highly implausible despite my husband having a teammate that makes my Ferrari flame," Tony replied.

"Or nephew. He could be Fitz's grandkid." Leo remarked. "Did you and Capt. Patriotism elope in the last 24 hours?" Hunter's comment caused Tony to realize he referred to Steve as his husband. He's not going to call attention to that slip.

"Obviously, he is your nephew since we're sleeping together," Hunter said, kissing Leo. "Definitely a Fitzsimmons kid," Hunter whispered against Leo's lips.

"This is not how I wanted to find out my grandfather is bisexual. Nana never mentioned this." The alleged grandson replied.

"What's going on?" Tony asked, looking at the trio still very confused.

"That's a long story," Hunter replied, sighing.

"And we're still trying to figure it out." Leo followed up for his husband. Tony is totally calling Hunter Leo's husband because they really were legally married, even if Hunter was unaware. Well as legal as it can be when technically the other person is from a different timeline.

"I'm going to go get some of the good hot chocolate, and then we are going to go into my office and you're going to explain what the fuck is going on," Tony said as he looked to his phone again. Peter just texted him back to let him know that they were five minutes out. Maybe they should just have a large group debrief.

"Can I have a Zima?" The alleged nephew asked. "My grandfather is married to Hunter. I need one."

"No. I feel like whatever you're going to tell me requires me to not be around any alcohol, including something as odious as Zima."

"You're not wrong," Hunter mumbled under breath.

To be continued

* * *

M is State Department shorthand for the Under Secretary for Management. Let's just say that the person who took this job after the Ross Administration was not happy at all with the skeletons they encountered.

Flaming head is Tony's nickname for Robbie Reyes, a.k.a. Ghost Rider II. In this universe, he is a member of Steve's Secret Avengers.


	3. C 2: I made out with Peter Parker

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all so fabulous. I am giving you more things to read while you are social distancing.

We are still in the "Tony and Steve have their shit together" timeline. The next chapter will take place in the "bad choices were made" timeline. The new consultant is MJ, and Venom is Flash. Wonder how he got that nickname. For those of you that skipped over text messages from the Edge, MJ and Flash are friends who just happened to be crushing on the same guy. A guy who is oblivious to everything. They bonded over asshole dads. Flash's father is abusive, and MJ's dad abandoned her again the year before.

Warning: Discussion regarding a questionable consent situation. Remember, enthusiastic consent is always necessary. Never do something you're not 100% comfortable with. Also, this chapter approaches the high end of the T rating for a brief moment, maybe even getting close to M.

* * *

**Conversation 2: Why didn't you tell me I made out with Peter Parker?**

The new consultant: So Afia told me that you know and told me to text you via the Avengers communication system before running into some top-secret meeting that will hopefully tell her where the fuck my cousin is. Are you in Avenger medical?

The new consultant: Did you faint? You're not drinking again, are you? I worry about you.

Venom: Still sober, which is somewhat remarkable considering this day began with seeing my now ex-boyfriend making out with somebody else on Instagram and ended with me finding out my best friend is a robot.

Venom: Which truth was my robot friend referring to? The fact that I was rejected last year by the same guy twice on the same day or that my only friend is a robot.

Venom: Also, who came up with my codename? I don't like Venom. Why on earth did they decide to refer to me as Venom in this system?

The new consultant: Regarding your code name, I don't know. I think it's randomly assigned. I'm apparently stuck with the new consultant. I don't even know who the old consultant was.

Avenger Karen: The old consultant was Mr. Stark-Rogers himself. Your cousin also took on that name for a while. Mr. Stark-Rogers chose that nickname for you. The boy in the chair assigned Mr. Thompson the codename, venomous asshole, during his Shield apprenticeship before his mother removed him from the program. Spidey changed it to Venom because he knew you would want a cool superhero codename. Also due to the various media deals with the Avengers, the use of the codename Flash is prohibited by Warner Media.

Venom: Who is the boy in the chair?

Avenger Karen: No one under 18 can be referred to by their actual name on official Avengers/ATCU communications channels. However, you are no longer a minor. I will tell you he is Spidey's friend.

Venom: I shouldn't even be surprised that Spidey's BFF came up with that name. Also, apparently, somebody is switching to the new last name early.

The new consultant: That also confirms that you have other friends who are not robots, including teenage mutant ninjas spider. Although personally, I don't consider Afia a robot. She is still a person who just happens to be a fabricated Wakandan American.

Venom: OK, point.

The new consultant: Spidey is your friend or possibly more than a friend. We're still in high school, there's no real need for labels.

Venom: Who never told me that he is Spider-Man. Or that he made out with me at the Fitzsimmons wedding last year.

Venom: Sorry, I kissed your not-a-boyfriend in front of you. I still don't get why you gave me chocolate after that humiliation.

The new consultant: I'm not. It was an enjoyable experience. You're also the reason why Peter figured out he isn't heterosexual. I gave you chocolate because I knew you needed it. We are friends.

Venom: Oh. I didn't know that.

Venom: I knew that we're friends, but I didn't realize that's how [redacted] figured out the truth. That's a lot.

The new consultant: You're not going to faint on me again?

Venom: I fainted on [redacted] and Afia.

The new consultant: It still counts.

Venom: Okay, why does the system redact Penis P's name, but not Afia?

The new consultant: I have no idea. Let's just refer to him as Benji for the rest of this conversation. Unless you want to discuss your fascination with his genitalia.

Venom: So how long have you known who Benji really is? Obviously, long enough to give me chocolate at the wedding. Why did I think it was a good idea to kiss a random superhero?

The new consultant: Heat of the moment. I've known since the inauguration. It was just too coincidental that Spider-Man showed up in DC again at the same time Benji was there.

Venom: I'm an idiot.

The new consultant: No, you were busy dealing with family drama. Even without Benji accidentally taking the mask off in front of you, you would've figured it out soon.

Venom: Yet, I didn't pick up on it when I was living in the Stark-Rogers household. I just assumed Benji was holding back in PE to keep the boy in the chair from feeling bad.

The new consultant: I think that might be partially true. You're aware he gets jealous. The boy in the chair doesn't even know Benji is probably a Kenzie 2 and checks your ass out in gym class regularly.

Venom: Something else I apparently never noticed. Along with the fact that Afia never eats. At least not those first few months.

The new consultant: She does now. Her body can create energy from food just like we do. She got an upgrade last summer.

Venom: ?

The new consultant: Are you familiar with Clark's third law?

Venom: Sufficiently advanced scientific Technology is indistinguishable from magic or something like that?

The new consultant: Close enough. That's essentially Afia. The state of New York won't allow Tony to adopt, so his AI Friday decided to take things into her own hands with the help of the Princess. They used science to create a person, a child for Tony to raise.

Venom: Which is bull shit because Tony is such a better dad than my parents. Any child would be happy to have him as a father. He does so well with [redacted].

Venom: I guess I can't say that name either.

The new consultant: We call him Spidey Junior, and you're going to have to ask Tony to explain that nickname.

Venom: I caught him sticking to the walls once. I think I get the idea. I really am that oblivious.

The new consultant: Afia is happy to be his daughter. She's a person. She just came into the world a little differently.

Venom: I think I get that, and I'm not that upset about the robot thing because, honestly, she tried to tell me the truth since the beginning. Since I'm stuck in medical with nothing to do, I've been reading our old text messages, and it's all there.

The new consultant: She has. You just never believed her.

Venom: I think we have established that I'm an idiot.

The new consultant: Just incredibly obtuse. I really wish you would've figured out your ridiculous behavior regarding Benji was a crush when we were freshmen.

Venom: That would've required me to figure out I am gay, and that took a while.

The new consultant: Because your dad was a homophobic asshole and unfortunately, you internalized his toxic behavior.

Venom: You really do see everything.

The new consultant: I guess this is the point in this conversation where I offer my condolences for the ex-boyfriend.

Venom: You're not sorry we broke up. You hated the guy I was dating.

The new consultant: Maybe because I saw this coming, especially after you called me in tears after flying out to California to see him. You still never told me why.

Venom: We got in a fight because I didn't want to go all the way. I thought I was ready when I decided to go to California for Valentine's Day, but I freaked out the moment he inserted a second finger. It didn't feel right. He was mad that I stopped things and kept trying to talk me into continuing, but I just left and then called you.

Venom: Okay, I pushed him away, then I called you after I got a lyft to the airport. Allegedly that's why he fucked around with someone else despite sending apology flowers. Apparently, the hooking up with someone else was happening long before Valentine's Day, and I'm an idiot for not noticing.

The new consultant: You can do better. You deserve someone who respects your boundaries.

Venom: You mean [redacted].

Venom: I mean, Benji. This filter is good.

The new consultant: Well, you do you know his biggest secret now, and I'm sure at least he knows that no means no. Also, if he ever found out what happened, he may be tempted to break his no-killing policy. At a minimum, he would web him up to the Hollywood sign or something.

Venom: Because apparently, he's the epitome of good. He's crushing on you.

Venom: I'm still having trouble reconciling Benji with Spidey, and really, I shouldn't.

The consultant: No, because he also likes you. He enjoyed kissing you more than Liz.

Venom: We still need to talk about him being Spider-Man first. Which won't be that hard since we're going to be sharing a room at the Lighthouse as soon as I'm freed from medical. Which will apparently happen once the all-hands meeting is over on deck 52.

Venom: Did you know that last year's wedding location is a secret Shield/ATCU/Avenger base with like 100 floors underground?

The new consultant: Yes. I spent a lot of my summer there.

The new consultant: Be easy on Benji. I think part of him wanted to tell you the truth, but he was afraid.

Venom: Which is understandable because rumors about our Inhuman heritage got us targeted by terrorists.

The new consultant: Actually, I think that he's been less careful around you than other people so he was hoping you would find out by accident.

Venom: Except I am ridiculously obtuse apparently, and he literally had to take his mask off in front of me for me to get it.

Venom: Afia has been telling me she is a robot since we first met each other, and I didn't believe her. What is wrong with me?

The new consultant: That you're not used to the world we live in yet. Your mind was just trying to come up with the most rational explanation possible. You should probably ask Simmons to give you the orientation.

Venom: I'm afraid to even ask what that is.

The new consultant: It's probably for the best.

The new consultant: You know I really am okay if you and Benji hook up.

Venom: You'll just want pictures?

The new consultant: Maybe.

Venom: I'm not. I just broke up with my long-distance boyfriend because he was sleeping with someone else allegedly because I wasn't ready to put out. Also, I just found out my two crushes are the same person. We need to talk.

The new consultant: Which is a good idea because I was about a week from locking you two in a room together to work things out.

The new consultant: With lube and condoms.

Venom: [6 Rolling eyes emojis]

Venom: I'm not sure how to start that conversation. I'm sure it will just be awkward, and I may end up calling him Penis [redacted] again.

The new consultant: Then maybe you should write to him. His Avenger system name is TMNS short for teenage mutant ninja spider.

Venom: That's your great advice?

The new consultant: It worked for Afia's parents. They were publicly fighting in an airport before they started texting each other. Now they're getting married in a month. I know she told you how they work through their issues. If it can work for the future Dr. and Mr. Stark-Rogers, then maybe you should try it, Eugene.

Venom: I really should change my first name. I feel like that name was their first act of cruelty against me.

The new consultant: You really should. I'm now glad I'm a Jones instead of a Johnson, cool superhero cousin non-withstanding.

The new consultant: I'm going to try to sleep, but tell your BFF to text me when she gets back no matter what. I really want to know what's going on with my cousin.

Venom: I'm sure it is just a mission thing. You told me Quake goes dark all the time.

The new consultant: I just feel like something different is happening this time. Like we're on the cusp of something big. I hope it's not another New York.

Venom: Or murder bots fiasco.

The new consultant: One can hope.

To be continued.


	4. C3 The secret life of Agent Laura Barton

Thank you to everybody who read or review the last conversation. You are all so wonderful.

Welcome to the "bad choices were made" timeline. Always keep your hands and feet inside the car.

Please note, since these people are not hiding from the government (Rhodey is VP and knows where they are), there are fewer codenames, and the underage are referred to by their actual names. It's one of the few advantages of this dystopic future.

Also, note that these messages aren't always being sent back to back. Sometimes there could be several minutes between replies. I don't have the energy to do timestamps, so it is what it is. I know some people are using graphics for their text message stories but I think this format works better for screen reading software. As somebody who uses screen reading software, I want to make my writing as accessible as possible.

* * *

**Conversation 3: The secret life of Agent Laura Barton's Cell Phone**

Steve: Is Laura conscious yet? Does Bruce know why she lost consciousness?

Melinda: Other than finding herself five years in the future?

Steve: I don't think that's entirely it. I saw her looking at her phone before she passed out and I think that's why she passed out. I think we need to look at her phone to really know what happened.

Melinda: Not yet. Clint and I are in the room with her. I agree with you. Can you convince Friday to let you have access?

Steve: Friday says no because this is a Shield agent's phone, and I'm not a Shield agent or an agent of the successor agency. Therefore, I'm not allowed to have access to Agent Barton's work phone.

Steve: I didn't think Laura was a Shield agent?

Melinda: She was a high school guidance counselor, at least the Laura we knew.

Steve: Didn't she come with a bag? Maybe you should check that for clues?

Melinda: Clever idea.

Melinda: It's not a regular purse, it's a Shield Mission purse with a hidden weapons compartment. It also contains her work lanyards and a Shield badge. It was issued in October 2016.

Melinda: There is also an ATCU badge in the bag along with a faculty ID card for Midtown School of Science. She's a guidance counselor there. The Midtown badge was issued in September, and the ATCU one was issued in October of 2016.

Steve: How can that be? Wasn't the ATCU disbanded by that point?

Melinda: Yes, because Director Mace wanted a return to the S.H.I.E.L.D brand even though Agent Burroughs argued against it. Mace thought Shield's image could be rehabilitated. Burroughs was right.

Steve: I am aware.

Melinda: I don't think this is Clint's Laura.

Steve: I think you may be right. Maybe you should try to get into her phone. You are the Director of Shield.

Melinda: What's left of it. Even Deke is now missing.

Melinda: Friday just gave me remote access.

Steve: Good. Maybe you should start with her text messages?

Melinda: That was Friday's suggestion too since they were talking to each other.

Steve: Good idea.

Melinda: Apparently, Friday took over a conversation with somebody Laura's address book refers to as Boss Tony.

Steve: Do you think that refers to Stark?

Melinda: It's his cell phone number. I know it because Morgan is always texting Robin from that number.

Steve: Because Morgan has Tony wrapped around her little finger and he will always let her play with his phone. What was she texting Tony about?

Melinda: She was texting him about Clint showing up unexpectedly when he was supposed to be in Malibu with Nikki, which is what I assume to be a code name for Nate. She referred to Clint as her "estranged husband". Also, apparently Stark now has an AI named ANA.

Steve: That's different.

Melinda: Laura and Tony also speculate about Clint being a shape-shifting alien.

Steve: Rocket says that they do exist. He said there are multiple species that have that ability.

Melinda: They do. Phil was impersonated by one in the 90s.

Steve: I am glad Rocket wasn't here.

Melinda: He might be able to help with this time travel situation.

Steve: But we would've just had another reason for Laura to lose consciousness.

Melinda: Friday took over the conversation when Laura arrived here, letting her know that Tony was no longer part of the Avenger network. Although apparently, he's kept that number for Morgan to make phone calls on.

Steve: OK

Melinda: She asked if Tony stopped being an Avenger because you married someone else. She also asked Friday how your engagement with Tony ended.

Steve: What?

Melinda: Friday also promptly confirmed her suspicions that you and Tony never started speaking to each other again after Siberia.

Steve: Oh

Melinda: The last thing Friday told her was that her children were victims of the decimation.

Melinda: That explains why she lost consciousness. Finding out your children are essentially dead would make anybody lose consciousness.

Steve: Waking up in the future and realizing everybody you love is gone can be quite disconcerting. I think we're going to have to prevent Friday from telling her anything else. I think she needs to be eased into it.

Melinda: There's no easy way to ease somebody into waking up in the future, although this reality is slightly less dystopic than the earth being cracked apart.

Steve: Marginally so. I think you should look at her photo album.

Melinda: Why?

Steve: So, we can be 100% sure she's from a different past or timeline. Maybe Simmons should look through her phone? She's better with tech.

Melinda: That would not be advisable since I just came across a photo of Hunter and Fitz making out. Friday make sure Simmons doesn't access this phone.

Avenger Friday: Of course, Director May-Rogers.

Melinda: Also, don't answer anymore of Laura's questions.

Avenger Friday: Yes, Director May-Rogers.

Steve: She's definitely from a different timeline? One where me and Tony start talking to each other again after Siberia?

Melinda: To the point where the two of you are engaged one month before Thanos arrived in our timeline.

Steve: I don't want to talk about that.

May: We should.

Steve: That's not us.

Melinda: But you need to fix things with Tony. It's been seven years, and you've never worked through your guilt regarding what happened.

Steve: My relationship with Tony is fine. He's taking care of Robin while we're trying to undo what Thanos did.

Melinda: You refer to Tony in your address book as Morgan's father. Your relationship is not fine. Nothing about your relationship with Tony is fine and you don't want to do anything to change that. I think he's moved past Siberia. Have you?

Melinda: Also, a lesser person would be upset that you call me his name during sex.

Steve: Sometimes when you're half asleep, you call me Phil and I'll never be angry about that. It was my fault we lost. The Avengers were in pieces because of me and we lost.

Melinda: I don't think everything can be blamed on you. We all made mistakes. I don't think it's healthy that you put everything on yourself. We're both a mess.

Steve: I know.

Melinda: You keep doing it anyway. You can't let go of the past.

Steve: Neither can you. We wouldn't be trying to do what we're doing if we could let go. Simmons was wrong. Neither one of us has moved on.

Melinda: Phil is gone, and even if what we're planning to do works, he's not coming back.

Steve: But we can bring Daisy back.

Melinda: I need to go. Laura's waking up.

Steve: Okay.

Melinda: But in the meantime, you should talk to Stark.

Steve: Why? He doesn't want to help other than taking care of Robin.

Melinda: We are going to need him to get Laura back to her own time at a minimum. We already screwed up once on our own.

To be continued.


	5. C4: The Spider in The Room

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You're so fabulous. With so many of us practicing social distancing right now, I thought it would be a good time to upload a chapter a little early. Remember to put this story on alert, so you don't miss any chapters.

Welcome back to the "Tony and Steve have their shit together" timeline.

Warning: Discussions of past child abuse.

**Conversation 4: We Need to Talk About the Spider in The Room**

Venom: I've been told that I'm not leaving medical without you. When will you be back?

Venom: Also, bring ice cream or any type of junk food. I feel like I deserve it today. I mean, I did find out my boyfriend was fucking around on me, and I made out with you a year ago and didn't know. That would've been an appropriate time to tell me the truth.

Venom: Also, you let me down gently for the same person twice. A person you have yet to make a move on.

TMNS: I was planning to do something this summer when we're in Europe, although that may not happen now. There may not even be a trip anymore because of things I am probably not allowed to even put in a rapid Avenger message. I wish Tylenol still worked on me. I have such a bad headache right now.

Venom: I'll give you a massage when you come. That usually helps. What the hell were you talking about in that meeting? Are aliens coming again?

Venom: Actually, don't answer that because I feel like your answer will be yes and I don't have the energy. Not if I'm going to stay sober. Although is MJ's cousin okay?

Venom: Apparently, because that's a nickname, the filters let that go through.

TMNS: Agent Tremors was well at the time of her last communication.

Venom: That doesn't sound as reassuring as it should be.

TMNS: I think we will be done in half an hour. I'm going to need ice cream too.

Venom: Ice cream is good. I would've gained so much weight this year if we weren't working out together.

Venom: I just realized you were probably always holding back because you're a superhero. So, we're not going to talk about the spider in the room?

TMNS: I'm not sure how to address that spider. Everyone keeps finding out by accident, and they never react well. My aunt freaked out and was about to bring lawyers against Mr. Stark.

TMNS: Actually, so did [redacted], but differently. Which led to him telling everybody that I was friends with Spider-Man and forcing me to make an appearance at Liz's party. MJ has been the only one who hasn't freaked out about it. She just casually mentioned it in a conversation.

Venom: That is not surprising. At least I didn't freak out, nor did I tweet about it. Me knowing Spider-Man would get rid of my pariah status at school. I know they're still all pissed off at me about losing Damien, our star basketball player, despite the fact he's a date raping terrorist group joining prick.

TMNS: You lost consciousness. I only caught you because I started to tingle. I think that counts as freaking out.

Venom: That wasn't about you. It's been a long day [redacted], and it just caught up all at once. Although I really want to know more about this tingling.

TMNS: Afia told me about the breakup. I'm sorry.

Venom: It was for the best. I don't really want to talk about it right now.

TMNS: Understandable. You still didn't deserve to be hurt like that.

Venom: Why didn't you tell me the truth? Did you not tell me the truth because you were afraid I was going to tell the entire Flash Mob about it? Because you know I wouldn't do that. Especially after you kept the truth about my ridiculously fucked up family and the fact that I'm gay to yourself. You haven't even told your BFF.

TMNS: Of course, I didn't think you would do that. You don't really care if you're still a pariah at school because you have real friends now. You don't throw those friends under the bus. If popularity was all you cared about, everybody would know that you are best friends with Aifa Stark-Rogers, and Tony Stark-Rogers was practically your guardian for a year. You don't even tweet that much anymore.

Venom: I'm no longer dependent on social media for my social interactions because, apparently, I have actual friends now.

Venom: So, if you were not worried about me telling the entire world the Spidey truth, why did you never tell me? I think we're friends now.

TMNS: Yes, considering you don't call me Penis [redacted] anymore. Although that name has taken on a different context. I'm starting to think the first time it was a Freudian slip, and you tried to pass it off as an insult.

Venom: You're aware I'm totally oblivious.

TMNS: You ended up living with the Stark-Rogers for a year. You became the target of a terrorist group because you're friends with Afia, and Damien told everybody that you're Inhuman. The watchdogs almost killed you twice. Me and Afia were the only ones who kept it from happening. I don't want to put you in danger again, and knowing the truth would've done that. It's a dangerous secret.

Venom: Of course, she's the Purple Princess. I'm already on the Watchdog's shit list. What's one more?

Venom: Also, I was staying with the Stark-Rogers because my dad is an alcoholic piece of shit who used to beat the crap out of me. The Watchdogs were a convenient excuse to get me out of hell. That's not on you, Benji.

TMNS: I don't want you dead, especially because of me. I don't need more blood on my hands.

Venom: Is this the time we remind you that your uncle's death wasn't your fault? I thought that was a November thing.

TMNS: There's also those that I was unable to save. Do not say, "you can't save everyone." I already had my powers by the time Uncle Ben was killed in front of me, and I did nothing.

Venom: I wasn't going to.

TMNS: You were thinking about it.

Venom: Maybe. Also, you were scared and 14. I bet you just got your powers before it happened. You need to get over your martyrdom complex, Benji.

TMNS: Can we just leave it at that you're on my list of people I care about?

Venom: I feel like there's more to it than this.

TMNS: Maybe I was afraid of how you were going to react. I either get fear or hero-worship. Tony compares coming out as a person with superpowers to coming out gay or bi. Tony said he announced to the world he was Ironman because he wanted to come out the second time on his own terms.

Venom: I get the analogy. Is it the same?

TMNS: I don't know because I haven't even told the boy in the chair that I'm demisexual queer romantic.

Venom: Did Afia gave you that label or MJ?

Venom: Also, I'm happy I'm on your people that you care about list.

TMNS: It helps that you're not a dick anymore, and it was MJ or rather the book she got me. She's been buying me a lot of books about that stuff lately. It's been helping me figure things out a little.

Venom: I'm working on not being a dick. It's easier not living with my parents anymore. [Redacted] doesn't know yet?

TMNS: I'll tell him if I ever have a boyfriend. Which may not be anytime soon because I don't know if I should get anybody else involved in this life.

Venom: And there's MJ already. She already knows your Spidey and has not abandoned you yet.

TMNS: Are you going to abandon me now?

Venom: No, I don't scare that easily.

TMNS: Are you mad at me for not telling you that I'm Spidey? I really should've told you after the kiss.

Venom: Yes, although I was finally telling people about my fucked-up family, so maybe it wasn't the right time to add one more thing. You made a cute pillow.

Venom: I typed "nice pillow," and my grammar IA changed it.

TMNS: Sure. I know about your old crush, there's no point in covering it up.

Venom: I'm not lying.

TMNS: Are you mad about Afia not telling you?

Venom: Actually, she did tell me that she's not a biologically based person. I just didn't listen.

TMNS: I mean about me.

Venom: It wasn't her secret to tell. That would be like her telling everyone that I'm gay.

TMNS: That is something she would never do.

Venom: Exactly, which is why I'm not mad at her. She's a good friend.

TMNS: Hey, they are letting me and Afia leave because apparently, the grown-ups need to keep talking.

Venom: That is not reassuring.

TMNS: We have Avengers Ben & Jerry's.

Venom: Including Spidey Berry Crunch?

TMNS: Yes.

Venom: Good. Bring ice cream, and maybe I won't need to put you on pillow duty again.

To be continued

We will be spending more time with Tony and Steve in the next few chapters, but I wanted to Address the Flash now knows Peter's secret identity cliffhanger from text messages from the Edge right away before we move forward.

I also wanted to contrast the Peter and Flash in this timeline compared to where they are in Far From Home. We've come a long way from that.

Also, I actually worked in one of my crazy typos into the story because it made an amusing joke. See if you can spot it.


	6. ATCUAvengers report 1

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are lovely. Also, a reminder I posted a special chapter Wednesday this week. If you did not read that chapter, go back.

We are back to the "bad choices were made" timeline in October of 2023. A few notes, time will not be flowing the same between our two timelines. Only a few hours have passed in the "good choices" timeline; in contrast, nearly a day has passed in the "mistakes were made" timeline. There's a reason for that.

We will be doing Shield Agent/Avengers mission reports in the story. This will function similarly to the interludes during the first story. Remember, Daisy and Laura are off by themselves, Laura in a different dimension/timeline several years in the future, and Daisy on Sakai, which might as well be considered a different dimension. I promise we'll be checking on Daisy soon.

* * *

**ATCU/Avengers report 1: I am no longer in Kansas**

Agent: Laura Barton

Location: Avenger compound, Medical wing

Date: October 12, 2023

I have been in this strange place for 22 hours and 18 minutes, according to Avenger Friday. That's about the only thing she's allowed to tell me now. May has ordered her not to tell me anything else due to her last major revelation causing me to lose consciousness.

From what I've gathered, I am here due to time travel gone wrong. Or maybe attempt to undo the damage caused by Thanos gone badly. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I've landed 5+ years in the future where half of all life in the universe was wiped out of existence at the snap of fingers and six stones.

My children are essentially dead, or rather the children of the Laura in this timeline are dead. They were among the many victims of what is referred to as the Decimation. Not that my counterpart is aware because she was also wiped out of existence. Now I understand why Clint seemed so lost when he found me at the compound. As far as he was concerned, I'd been dead for over five years. All of us being gone explains the midlife crisis hair and tattoos. A major life crisis can usually explain the worst hair and tattoo choices.

Of course, I'm going entirely on supposition because this Clint hasn't said a word to me about anything. He was waiting for me to wake up in medical after passing out. However, after I confirmed May's suspicions that I am a Shield agent from an alternate 2018, he's been avoiding me. Maybe I'm just another ghost of the past to him now.

Bruce has been the only one that talks to me, although May has sat in on all those meetings, usually focusing on her phone. She was greatly relieved when she found out that Laura was from the timeline created by Leo Fitz, a.k.a. James Leopold being tossed back in time nearly 2 years by the monolith. She seemed grateful to find out that Leo didn't die; he just created a new timeline where Tony and Steve started speaking to each other again and Coulson is not terminally ill.

Not surprisingly, Melinda left the room after that revelation. I am trying to decide if it was the Coulson was alive revelation or the fact that her husband was engaged to someone else revelation that forced her to leave. Considering Friday told me that they were only married so she could get custody of her adopted daughters, I'm leaning towards Coulson being alive and well in my timeline. I can understand how hard something like that could be.

15 minutes later, Steve arrived to take her place, and Bruce resumed his interrogation. Steve didn't really participate except when Bruce asked him if he was bisexual and to confirm he really did date a former Sen. Christopher Ward staffer. I feel horrible for revealing that, but I needed to know for sure how close the timelines are. (And that felt like a safer topic then the half-sister in Nevada.) I'm now 100% sure they diverged when Leo came back.

Steve almost seemed relieved that we know about Thanos and are actively preparing to defeat him as a team. Of course, I don't know if the preparations we've made will make any difference because nobody will answer my questions about what happened here, and I've asked everyone. No one answers.

As stated earlier, Friday is now banned from telling me anything else about what I am mentally referring to as the 'Thanos wins' timeline. I'm only aware of this order because I woke up to Natasha berating the AI for telling me too much after May told her about the information ban. I get the impression that Natasha might oversee this timeline's Avengers. I, unfortunately, I can't get any confirmation regarding that because Friday is banned from telling me that.

I despise this one-way exchange of information. They want to know everything about where I'm from, but won't tell me anything of use. Of course, I'm holding some things back as well. No way am I going to mention that Leo decided not to look for a way to come back to his original timeline and is essentially married to someone else. I'm pretty sure this Simmons is holding on by a thread. She tried to come to see me once and started crying. I overheard somebody saying something about Fitz also being dusted, which confuses me. I would love for clarification, but again no one is telling me anything.

This is what I know:

On March 24, 2018, three monoliths that control space, time, and creation were destroyed by a bomb. It was presumed that Leo Fitz died during the explosion. Instead, he was transported 22 months into the past. Due to his attempt to prevent the destruction of the earth, he created an alternate timeline that apparently, I come from.

On April 28, 2018, half of all living life was wiped out by Thanos using the infinity stones. The Avengers were not able to keep him from getting all six stones. The last stand happened in Wakanda, which makes sense considering some of Robin's early drawings. I am starting to think that maybe the baby bird can see the future of multiple dimensions and timelines, not just our own. Perhaps she was showing us what would happen if Leo didn't intervene. I don't know for sure.

If I'm doing the math right, the decimation happened about a month after Leo disappeared from this timeline. This means that we diverge from this timeline, or at least that's what Bruce hypothesizes. This would be our future if he didn't come. This could still be our future except Coulson is not terminal and Steve and Tony are practically married to each other. (I haven't even met this timeline's Tony yet and I kind of want to smack him upside the head for letting the situation get this bad.)

Yo-Yo was killed by Thanos during the fight. I'm trying to find out if others died during the battle, but again Friday's not allowed to tell me anything, and no one else is talking. I overheard this little tidbit.

I wish I had a comprehensive list of who is dusted, but I don't. My children, myself, Daisy, Agent McKenzie, and all of Ms. Marvel's family are among the dusted. I'm 99% sure that the Princess is among the dusted too, because if she was still alive, I completely expect her to be here. I also feel that the time travel might have worked properly. She is the smartest Avenger. Even my Tony says that.

The Avengers that are left have resorted to time travel to try to get the stones because they were destroyed by Thanos in this timeline, so his masterpiece cannot be undone. I assume that Thanos is dead, but again I have no confirmation on that.

I don't know why I am writing this report. It's not like I'm able to send it to my Tony right now. Maybe I am writing so I can put my thoughts together on what I need to do. I need to get back home to prevent this from happening. I'm not losing my kids. I'm just not. The best way to keep Thanos from winning again is to figure out how the Avengers lost.

I'm not sure they're willing to answer my questions regarding that. They're living with the scars of what happened, but I don't think they ever processed it. I'm not sure if everybody grieved because they're focusing on undoing it. On that note, I don't think they're going to be willing to examine the mistakes that were made closely. I hypothesize things went badly because they were not actually on speaking terms at the time of the invasion. It's hard to stop an apocalypse when you're not talking to many of your teammates. I think Leo made the right decision in getting Tony and Steve talking to each other again first. At least that's one thing going in our favor.

Xxxxxx

Laura placed her phone on her lap, done for the moment, or so she thought. Suddenly she noticed text show up on her phone mysteriously.

xxxxx

_I'm curious to know precisely how your Tony and Steve started talking to each other again. Because like you guessed, we have yet to really move past the Siberia fiasco. The rift was just made worse by the fact we had our asses handed to us by a giant purple alien._

_I feel like I need details because the Steve Rogers I know is not a sharer. He is also a bit of an asshole. He doesn't like to share information; therefore, it has not surprised me at all they're not telling you about this god awful "Thanos wins and everything is horrible" timeline that you found yourself in. Although it is good to have more confirmation that Star Trek got time travel more correct than Back to the Future. _

_Okay, and maybe Steve is not entirely horrible. Okay, he's not horrible at all. Sometimes he just annoys me, but I wish we could hang out without talking about our kids. He still has a stick up his ass, in the bad way, but he is a good father and husband. Better than me sometimes, not that Pepper and I are married because reasons. _

_It can't be easy raising a child that sees the future. It's hard enough raising a normal gifted kid. __Not that there is anything normal about any gifted kid. I should know. _

_xxxxx_

After reading the text messages, Laura was 100% sure who was writing, but decided that she should write the person back. Therefore, she started to type.

_xxxxx_

Tony? Is that you. Also, Star Trek was right about meeting yourself not causing a world-ending paradox. Leo and Fitz are like brothers. They hang out with each other all the time.

The random text showing up on my screen is creepy. Send an actual text message or something else next time.

_You are good. Yes, this is Tony. __I'm going to need a number to do that._

Please, not you. You're Tony Stark.

To be continued.

I was initially going to keep this conversation going on longer in this form, But I realized it was very confusing to read and would have been hard to interpret for those using screen reading software. They rarely tell you when the text switches to being italicized.

But just to clarify, the italicized text was Tony sneakily typing on Laura's Avenger report share document.


	7. C5: Where is my cousin?

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all lovely.

I debated whether to call this a conversation or a mission report chapter because it contains both. However, since it begins with the conversation I will treat as such.

We are back in the "Tony and Steve had their ship together" timeline. I know you want to see if Tony Stark-Potts gets back to Laura, lost in 2023, but I did promise you a Daisy check-in. Remember that due to me misreading MJ's last name originally, I came up with the brilliant idea to make her Daisy's cousin and I kept running with it.

Conversation 5: Where is my cousin?

Girl Friday: Hey, I just got out of the meeting. Dad let us leave early because he caught Peter texting Flash when he was supposed to be paying attention to the essential briefing. He mumbled something about the end of the world being no match for teenage hormones.

The new consultant: That's partially my fault. I told Flash to text Benji to talk things out before they ended up sharing a room tonight. Why are they sharing a room? I know the lighthouse is enormous.

Girl Friday: Now you make me feel like a bad friend. I arranged for them to share. I may have also left ice cream, condoms, and a first-aid kit with the intention of just leaving them there and checking in on them in the morning.

The new consultant: No, because honestly, I was planning to do this sometime next week if they kept tiptoeing around each other, especially because the placebo is now gone for good. It was going to be Flash's late birthday present.

Girl Friday: This is true. Although, I feel like the First-aid kit may not actually be necessary unless Flash faints again.

The new consultant: The ice cream will be useful, at least. I don't think they're ready for the condoms.

Girl Friday: Maybe because of their text conversation, they will just go to sleep.

The new consultant: Possibly since it's 2 AM.

Girl Friday: I had no idea it was that late. Since the latest Wanda tuneup, I'm starting to become a bit more human in that regard. I'm sorry I texted you.

The new consultant: I wouldn't have messaged you back if I wasn't up.

Girl Friday: Why are you still up?

The new consultant: It's hard to sleep when you're worried about one of the family members you like. You and Benji were called into an Avenger meeting. You're never called into an Avenger meeting unless the situation is bad or involves our high school. You're both on-call only numbers. We're not in the middle of an apocalypse? Your dad did make an apocalypse joke.

Girl Friday: No more in the middle of one than usual.

The new consultant: That isn't reassuring.

Girl Friday: I wasn't trying to be.

The new consultant: I hate when you're evasive. So where is my cousin?

Girl Friday: Possibly Asgard, although we're not 100% sure because we haven't gotten a confirmation message from her. The Princess theorizes that it might take up to two or three days to get a message from there through the system.

The new consultant: That explains why you're texting me on the Avenger channel. Why is my cousin on another planet?

Girl Friday: That's all I got from my dad. A quinjet will pick you up at 7 AM and bring you to the Lighthouse.

The new consultant: That's also not reassuring, especially because I'm going to the Lighthouse and not the Avenger compound.

Girl Friday: That would be because this afternoon, Laura was kidnapped from the Avenger compound by someone that sort of looks like her husband, but with crazy hair and more tattoos. We initially thought he was a shapeshifting alien, but it turns out he was Clint from another timeline from about five years in the future.

The new consultant: You owe me pancakes when I get there with chocolate and blueberries. Why do I feel like this is the beginning of another New York level apocalypse?

Girl Friday: Do you need me to lie to you or tell you the truth?

The new consultant: Actually, don't answer that question at all. I just hope my cousin is safe wherever she is.

Girl Friday: I hope so too. I'm going to go sleep. That's something that I need to do after the latest upgrade.

The new consultant: Someday we must talk about how powerful your sister-in-law really is.

Xxxxx

Avenger mission report of Agent Daisy Johnson; UN Avengers member

location: Grand Master's palace, on the planet I'm not sure how to spell yet

Time: Unsure, 49 hours after arrival

After two days with Loki, I really want to strangle him, but understand I may be food for the locals if I do so. We barely escaped that fate by working together. I used my powers to protect us, but he manipulated things, so we didn't end up in the gladiator ring. Being the excellent liar that he is, somehow Loki managed to get us in the house of the ruler of the planet. This whole planet seems like a mix between Vegas and the Hunger Games.

Loki has transformed into their female form and has told the Grand Master that I'm her magical warrior handmaiden. (Note to self, asked Loki about pronoun preference.) Apparently, the Grand Master enjoys princesses from far-off planets and for the moment we are safe. Although we were invited to what I'm assuming is some sort of orgy. If I find out Loki agreed for us to be concubines for this Grand Master, I will quake the Prince of Lies to pieces. BTW, that name is so stupid and pretentious.

Considering that the Grand Master's already made a pass at me twice I see this as a possibility and I'm not having that. I did some things when I was on the street to survive that I wish I didn't. I know that it's necessary for me to do whatever I have to do to survive this planet, but not that. Calling a truce with the being that murdered Coulson was hard enough. Yes, the death didn't stick, but I'm still upset about that.

Here's what I know so far about where I am:

This is essentially an inner dimensional dumping ground of various portals like the one that sent Simmons to the planet of death and Leo back to our timeline. Also, apparently time moves differently here. Maybe just a few hours on Earth, but days or even weeks have past here or at least that's Friday's hypotheses. That is not reassuring at all.

I do not know if I can survive weeks or months with Loki as my only companion. Why did Robin want me to come to Asgard? Did she know this was going to happen? Why am I here? I have no idea.

I'll send an update when I can. I don't want people to know that I have any type of communications device. And by people, I mean my Asgardian roommate.

Tosha, send help. Robbie can find me, right? Get me out of here.

To be continued

Remember per Ragnarök, time flows very differently on Sakaar. So, Daisy might be there for a few weeks where it may only be a day or two outside. Obviously, she's very unhappy about that.

Also, I have a soft spot for gender fluid Loki. As you're aware I incorporate a lot of my favorite things from the comic books in this story.


	8. Conversation 6: Conversations with Tony

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You're all fabulous.

Welcome back to the "bad choices were made" timeline. This conversation takes place about an hour after the last one ended in this timeline.

**Conversation 6: Conversations with Tony Potts**

* * *

Boss Tony: According to Friday, this is your phone number. Strangely enough, it was never assigned to another member.

Counselor Laura: Apparently, you still have the phone number of my Tony since the address book is showing it as the usual contact for him even though Friday said you had a non-Avenger phone number. Congratulations, it only took you an hour.

Boss Tony: I was distracted by children. It was grilled cheese time.

Counselor Laura: I understand. Also, as long as I'm here in 2023, I'm changing the contact to Tony Potts.

Tony Potts: Good choice. Should I be concerned that you know me well enough to recognize who I am from about three paragraphs of rambling? Also, the fact you know me well enough to know that I want to know if our Fitz and your Fitz can hang out is unnerving. How many science-fiction marathons have we watched together?

Counselor Laura: A lot. I figured it out when you referred to Steve as an asshole. You still call him an asshole on a regular basis, but usually as "my asshole." Honestly, I think it's one of your litany of pet names.

Counselor Laura: Well, not your litany, but rather my Tony's litany of pet names. He's also partial to Cuddle Bunny, Capt. Tight Pants, Sugar muffin, and Nomad.

Counselor Laura: BTW the Fitz that came from this timeline we call Leo so we can tell them apart, which is why I'm calling you Tony Potts.

Tony Potts: One of those seems very different than the others. Although I can definitely see Capt. Tight Pants. He has America's ass. And it's only gotten better over the years. Also, I think I would add DILF to that now.

Counselor Laura: I try not to question my Tony and Steve's relationship. Which from this point forward, I will refer to as the Stark-Rogers. It's too headache-inducing.

Counselor Laura: To answer your question from before, the Stark-Rogers started talking again because, one night after getting completely wasted, that Tony texted Steve.

Counselor Laura: Yes, with the god-awful flip phone that Steve gave him and you just kept texting, and apparently, you're much better at texting each other than talking in person. Eventually, you became friends and then more than friends or rather that's what happened with the Stark-Rogers.

Tony Potts: That flip phone was ridiculous. I still have it somewhere, though.

Counselor Laura: That Tony and Steve shouldn't have kept talking to each other because it was a ridiculous security risk. Coulson was covering for them because he was a closet Stony shipper. Amusingly enough, Tony Stark-Rogers had Friday covering them up with porn. Jim was not amused when he ended up the new director of Shield.

Tony Potts: That is something I would do to mess with Ross. So you come from a world that's vastly different because unlike my Friday, his Friday actually sent those messages?

Tony Potts: Also, my Jim never ended up at S.H.I.E.L.D., but that would've been brilliant.

Counselor Laura: Yes. It was your idea, actually.

Tony Potts: That makes sense. You don't want to know what I said to Stevie after Thanos. I think I just made it worse. I would like to blame it on the nearly dying due to starvation, but I know better. I can be a dick sometimes.

Counselor Laura: At least old age is making you more self-aware.

Tony Potts: No. That would be Pepper. She tells me I always say things without thinking them through. She's worried about Morgan picking up my unhealthy habits.

Counselor Laura: I think Leo convinced Friday that for the good of mankind, you and Steve needed to be on speaking terms. Although she may have eventually went full Emma.

Counselor Laura: Wait, you sent drunk text messages to Steve?

Tony Potts: I wrote them, I never actually sent any of them. I still write them sometimes, although now I'm stone-cold sober.

Counselor Laura: I'm not even surprised. I'm thankful for Friday's intervention. Sometimes you need all the help you can get.

Tony Potts: Seriously, how do you know me so well or rather your Stark so well?

Counselor Laura: I did a stint as Tony sobriety coach post-Siberia incident. We also lived at the tower for a few months to stay off Ross' radar. I'm still his AA sponsor. 22 months and going strong. I'm really proud of him.

Tony Potts: I am at 41 months sober. There's been some stops and starts, but I don't want to be a repeat of Howard for Morgan.

Counselor Laura: That's really good. I always felt guilty because I spent a good portion of Cody's early childhood in and out of rehab.

Tony Potts: I'm just going to assume that you don't type your kids' names in these messages. I am surprised you are so close to other me. I never actually talked to you again after you so graciously allowed us to hide in your house that time I made murder bots. I think I sent you a chocolate gift basket, though.

Counselor Laura: You did, and it made the last month of pregnancy tolerable. You have excellent choice in chocolate and apology presents. Although, I prefer when you deliver them in person. So you didn't show up at the farmhouse crying and asking for forgiveness?

Tony Potts: Other Tony did that?

Counselor Laura: You even arranged for us to see Clint on your private island. That's part of the reason why I stayed clean and why I agreed to help you. You're a good person under the suits and bravado.

Tony Potts: I considered it, but didn't. I didn't think you would want to see me after I caused your or rather her husband to go on the run.

Counselor Laura: I think Friday may have talked you into that too because she was working with Leo to fix things. At the same time, I think I needed a friend as much as you did back then, and that's why we bonded. My Tony did, anyway. We did become friends, and I think our friendship helped him work through a lot of his other issues. This included mending fences with his Steve, staying sober, and getting diagnosed correctly.

Counselor Laura: Have you been diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

Tony Potts: Not until after Morgan was born, because I'm afraid of becoming Howard, I finally started therapy again. I should've after we lost, but I didn't. I'm glad the other me got treatment sooner.

Tony Potts: Instead of going to you, I went to Pepper, and well at least we got back together, and we have Morgan, and it's okay.

Tony Potts: Okay, and she dumped the asshole. Turns out, he was fucking around with someone else. Please tell me that Pepper did not marry that guy in the other timeline.

Counselor Laura: No, she dumped him after she walked in on him, fucking around with some young adult movie starlet. I can't even remember which one. Her and Happy have been dancing around each other for the last year and ½.

Tony Potts: Happy is a much better choice. Although here, he was trying to start something with Peter's Aunt May before they were both dusted.

Counselor Laura: May Parker-Riley is dating one of Peter's professors. Also, is everything really okay? Because it doesn't feel like it is. You've lost a lot of people.

Tony Potts: I don't know. You really do know me too well.

Counselor Laura: Not you, my Tony. I don't know what happened here completely. No one wants to tell me because I may have passed out when I found out my children are dead here.

Tony Potts: Understandable.

Counselor Laura: I want to know what went wrong, so when I do get back home, I can make sure my children never die.

Tony Potts: What about you?

Counselor Laura: I don't care about me. I just need my children to survive.

Tony Potts: Spoken like a real parent.

Counselor Laura: Steve just came in.

Counselor Laura: Also, apparently, he's in charge of looking through my cell phone, so can you please delete this conversation.

Tony Potts: Already done. Do you want me to lock him out?

Counselor Laura: Not yet.

To be continued


	9. IP 1 Take me to the wizard

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last section. You are all wonderful. We are still in the "Tony and Steve made bad choices" timeline. I was tempted to go back to the other timeline, but I felt like you would be furious with me if I didn't cut back to Laura and Steve.

Also, the last few text messages of the chapter before are happening concurrently with the first part of this chapter.

**In-person conversation 1: Take me to the wizard- I mean Stark**

"We weren't really speaking to each other at the time of the invasion." Laura looked up to see Steve walk into the room, holding a Stark pad.

"You should probably know that Melinda put me in charge of looking through your cell phone. She didn't want Simmons to come across any more pictures of Fitz and Hunter making out." Steve tells her, and she's not surprised.

That's when she types out a text for Tony to delete their conversation. She doesn't want them to know she's talking to Tony because the team might put a stop to that, and she feels like he might tell her the truth of how they lost to Thanos eventually.

"I really thought I was doing good at keeping that a secret." She said with a groan as she hit the send button.

"Would it make her feel better to know that she's married to the other Fitz, and they're expecting their first baby soon. There are some pictures of the makeup reception in there." They had one about a month after the wedding once Leo was healed from his gunshot wounds. She still can't believe Alastair tried to kill his son at the Fitzsimmons wedding with the help of the Watchdogs. It was beyond disturbing.

"I don't think it would help," Steve said darkly.

"I've noticed that," Laura said as she typed out a response to Tony.

"You know, you didn't have to go through my phone. You could've just asked more questions like Bruce did. I prefer that you don't do that."

"You were unconscious, and we were trying to figure out why when we started looking through it. That is how we figured out you were from another timeline." Steve told her which was the reason why she deleted her original message and told Stark not to block their access just yet.

"Okay, I can understand in those circumstances, although why did Ana… Friday let you into my phone? I think only the head of Shield can get in. Although maybe the head of the Avengers could too. I'm not sure how Fitz set the permissions." Laura explained.

"I'm not the head of the Avengers, Natasha is. Melinda is the director of Shield, though. This might be why she was able to get into the phone, and she gave me permission to keep looking. I assume things are different where you are?"

At that question, Laura realized that Bruce never asked her about that. Bruce never asked her any questions about her being a Shield agent. This made Laura think that Melinda deliberately kept that information from the man.

"You're right, it is different. Tony is the director of the new Shield replacement agency, the advanced threat containment unit, or rather the acting director because he can't get confirmed. Technically, it's the ATCU but there's still a Shield division A.k.a. the Superhuman, Inhuman, Enhanced Persons Liaison division and I'm part of that. Although I mostly work with children and teenagers with superpowers." Laura explains.

"Is that Tony unable to be confirmed because of Ultron?" Steve asked. She was sure that Steve already knows that her timeline branched off from the year after the incident.

"They are more upset about the engagement to an American icon who happens to be a fugitive due to the Accords fiasco." She knows that he saw the pictures of Dr. and Mr. Leopold together, but she doesn't know if Mr. May-Rogers knows about Dr. and Mr. Stark-Rogers.

"I know the Steve of your time is with Tony. I saw a picture of them kissing at Christmas on your phone." Steve tells her, and she can see a hint of sadness in his eyes. She knows that look because she sees it every time Steve Stark Rogers is forced to part from Tony Stark Rogers.

"I was trying to be polite."

"I don't need politeness right now." Laura was trying to remember if Steve was this much of a dick before the therapy and getting laid constantly.

"Then I can be honest and tell you that the future Dr. Stark-Rogers can't get confirmed because he's fucking a guy, although up until yesterday that man was a wanted fugitive. I hope the Mumbai agreement was still signed yesterday in light of my disappearance." Steve responded with a sigh. Thankfully he didn't ask about the Mumbai agreement.

"I wish I could say that I am surprised about that. How did that Stark end up in charge of Shield?" Steve asked her.

"He made a deal with President Ellis to get you or rather other Steve a pardon and the accords renegotiated in exchange for taking over the agency. They just came to an agreement, and the signing was happening when I was brought over to this weird place. At least this is better than that time I got kidnapped by Ross."

"That's the Mumbai agreement that you mentioned earlier? Ellis got a second term in your timeline?" Steve asked.

"Yes, and yes. Leo prevented the Watchdog backer from interfering with the elections, and Ellis was open to renegotiating once he was reelected. Your counterpart helped with the negotiations. Several countries including Malta, South Korea, and Wakanda backed him up." Laura explained.

"I knew something like that happened. I'm sure whatever agreement we came up with was better than the Accords."

"It is. The new agreement is significantly less draconian and contains protection for individuals with powers who happens to be underage. Also, no registry that can be used by terrorist groups."

"That's good."

"So, are you going to ask me how your other self ended up engaged to Tony Stark?" Because honestly, Laura has been waiting for that question since she got here and realized she was trapped in this "Tony and Steve are morons" timeline. She's expecting it since the guy came across a picture of him making out with Tony. There's a lot of pictures of Tony and Steve kissing on her phone. Lila tended to borrow it to take photos of her uncles whenever they got to see them. Usually in Malta. The family spent a lot of time in Malta over the last year.

"Honestly, I'm more interested in knowing how they moved past Siberia at all. How did that Tony forgive me?" That part was whispered, but Laura still heard Steve.

'Apparently, the self-flagellation is a universal constant.' Laura thought to herself. She's not even surprised Steve asked this question because Tony asked the same thing. God, they are so stupid.

"You understand mistakes were made on both sides? There were no good choices during the Accords' fiasco or as my Tony refers to it as the Avengers' uncivil toddler squabble." Steve half chuckled at that.

"I'm starting to realize that now."

"My Tony and Steve realized that too eventually, although it took a lot of text messaging and open and honest communication to get there." Also, therapy and antidepressants, but Laura felt like that would violate doctor-patient confidentiality or, in this case, AA sponsor confidentiality.

She had told Tony more, but that might be because she's closer to Tony, even if the Tony she spoke to was not her Tony. The sponsorship bond is strong. Tony has been her rock during the separation. So, of course, she's going to be comfortable telling this timeline's Tony about the drunk text messages.

But maybe there's this part of her that is still annoyed with Steve for punching Clint. Yes, Steve and Clint are friends again. Perhaps even best friends, but she can still be annoyed.

"They didn't go from fighting to making out on the couch. The future Stark-Rogers had a lot of shit to get through, and they did it together because maybe they realized the world needed them on speaking terms. At some point, my Tony and Steve realized that a lot of the choices they made were because they were in love with one another, and both were too stubborn to acknowledge it." Steve's blush told her she hit the nail right on the head.

"OK," Steve mumbled as he took the seat next to her bed.

"Before Friday was banned from telling me anything, she told me that you and Tony never really recovered from Siberia even though it's been seven years. She said your relationship with Tony is, and I quote complicated. Is that true?" Laura asked even though her conversation with Tony earlier confirmed that.

"He's watching my daughter right now. Robin, not Kamala. She's a junior at Brooklyn Vision Academy. She only gets to come home on the weekends. However, Robin is homeschooled, and we thought it was safer for her not to be here." Steve explained.

"I'm not surprised at all that you have a place in Brooklyn. Also, I know both girls in my timeline." For some reason, Laura decides not to tell him that Robin will soon be the stepdaughter of Steve's childhood best friend. They're planning a September wedding if the end of the world doesn't happen first. Well, the end of half the world, her included.

"I trust Tony with my daughter. There's not a lot of people around that I would, but he's top of the list." Steve tells her.

"That's because despite what the state of New York believes, Tony is really good with children. I'm so glad somebody decided to let him adopt. I've already heard about Morgan." And she could tell this Tony was in love.

"Actually, Morgan is Tony and Pepper's biological child. Tony called her his miracle baby." A miracle would be right, considering her Tony was extremely sterile. Although this Steve probably doesn't know that because his relationship with Tony probably never included talking about his fertility issues.

"I'm glad you trust Tony with your kids, but that doesn't tell me about your relationship with him. You're not really friends anymore, are you?" Laura asked.

"I'm not 100% sure if we ever were, not really. Tony never forgave me for losing to Thanos. Losing Peter destroyed a part of him." Considering her Tony saw Peter as his son, this was bad. "My stubbornness was why we were fighting and why the Avengers were in pieces when we really needed to be together. We lost everything because we stopped being a team. Now it feels like the only thing we have in common is our children. It is the only thing we really can talk about."

"That sounds like a lot of my adult friendships." Her old friendships back at the farmhouse before she became an agent herself that is. It wasn't exactly like she could tell them what her husband did for a living. Also, most of her friendships now are with people who are Avengers, Shield agents, or the parents of kids with superpowers.

"Last week, I went to him to ask for his help with our attempt to create time travel using the Pym Particles to undo what happened. The only thing he was willing to do was to watch Robin. I think he doesn't want to help because deep down, he still hates me." Steve tells her. Laura was personally fighting off the desire to shake Steve. Really, she thought she was so done with Tony and Steve pining after one another. There's also Steve being too self-absorbed to realize not everything is about him. Here we go again. Maybe she should've let Steve come across Tony's ramblings to her earlier. Perhaps that would help him get a clue.

"I don't think Tony will ever hate you. You assume that, but have you actually asked him how he feels?" Because I'm pretty sure most of his feelings are warm and fuzzy. It was also at that moment that Laura remembered that DILF stood for dad I like to fuck.

"I think Friday can show you security footage of Tony yelling at me because I wasn't there when he needed me and ripping his armor off of his chest." She wondered if this was the same incident that Tony talked about briefly.

"Friday, show me the video?" She asked the AI, not expecting a reply.

"Of course, Agent Barton," Friday said before the video popped up on the screen. She almost wondered if Dr. Potts override May's earlier orders.

"Do you really think it was the best time to ask Tony those questions? He was in a wheelchair and hooked up to an IV at the time, looking very emaciated. I know you just went through a crisis, and half the world population was gone, but time and place." Laura asked after watching the first part of the video.

"May said I was too focused on the mission that I was obsessed with it, and I didn't see the big picture."

"Your wife was right. That's something you need to work on." She tells him as she continues watching the video. Everyone she can see in the frame is a mess. Of course, they would be after losing so much. She also wonders if this Steve ever received treatment for his adjustment disorder. She will ask later, just focus on one problem at a time.

"You realize that Tony said those things to you because he was scared and worried about you? He didn't want to lose you too after losing everyone else. It's pretty obvious to me that none of you were thinking very clearly after what happened." Laura tells him after watching the grainy security footage. Note to self ask Tony about the build a bear thing. She should probably text him again. It's not like anyone else is going to talk to her. Clint was still avoiding her, and Natasha was with him.

"You're giving up too easily. I still think you and Tony can fix things."

"Some things can't be fixed," Steve tells her.

"Some things still need to be. You and Tony need to fix things to at least the point he will come to help us because I need to go back home to prevent this from happening. It won't undo things here, but at least you'll prevent one universe from going through the pain you're going through now." Laura tells Steve.

"We don't need Tony. Bruce and Simmons are already working on the way to bring you home." Steve argued.

"Simmons is a mess and do not deny it because the one time she came to see me, she burst into tears," Laura tells him.

"You may be right about that," Steve conceded reluctantly.

"Although he has seven doctorates, I don't think any of them were in this field. You need Tony. You need the Princess and Leo, and unfortunately, I know for a fact at least he is stuck in my timeline. I'm also 99% sure the Princess was a casualty of the decimation. Which means Tony is the best available option." She argued.

"You're right, she was one of the victims of the decimation along with Leo Fitz. Tony might be one of the few that understands what's going on, especially because Deke is missing." Steve explained as he sighed again.

"Okay, I'm confused. Please explain to me how Leo is also a victim of the decimation since I thought this timeline's Leopold Fitz was presumed dead even though I'm now 99% sure he created my timeline. Here is an important lesson about time travel because I know you're trying it; you don't change your timeline by going to the past, you just make a new one." Laura tells Steve.

"I'm aware. My wife has traveled to the future."

"Of course." She vaguely remembers reading something about that in Leo's medical file.

"To rescue my wife and others from a timeline where Thanos lost, but Earth was cracked apart, Leo Fitz cryogenically froze himself to wake up 70+ years in the future. After saving everybody and defeating the Kree, they came back through the portal. Then that Fitz ended up in your timeline after the monoliths exploded. However, the version of Leopold Fitz that froze himself still exists in this timeline." Steve explained.

"That makes sense. There are currently two different Fitzs running around in my timeline. We call the one which originated from this timeline James "Leo" Leopold." They also occasionally call him Fitz Hunter, but she does not want Simmons to know about that. She knew Steve would keep quiet about that, but Laura was concerned Friday would do something stupid like show Simmons video of this conversation. She knows Friday's cameras are everywhere because Tony is extra paranoid.

"After we lost, truly lost, Simmons joined the remaining Guardians with Deke to find the ship that Fitz was cryogenically frozen on. You at least heard Rocket's voice on that video. Tony referred to him as a build a bear."

"The one that kind of sounds like Bradley Cooper? Why would Tony refer to him as a build a bear?"

"Anyway, they did find the ship that Fitz was on. Being nonorganic, Enoch survived the decimation, but Fitz's cryogenically frozen body was reduced to dust. Simmons actually asked Enoch to help us with the time travel thing, but he cannot interfere because apparently, this doesn't meet the threshold for 'extinction-level event.'" Steve explained. Laura should probably ask who Enoch is, but she's afraid to.

"So, this other Leo was another victim of the snap?" Laura asked.

"We call it the decimation. But yes, we believe that's what happened."

"I prefer snap." It feels less horrible. She doesn't want to keep calling it the decimation.

"Regardless of what you call, we are trying to undo it by getting the stones back," Steve explained

"Which means she gets Fitz back, and Clint gets his children back." She doesn't mention herself. Were her and Clint also on a break when the snap happened? Was he even in the country? For all she knows he could've been on the run and that's why he obviously feels so guilty.

"Exactly."

"I don't know if you're actually going to be able to find the six stones throughout time. Although maybe Robin made us not destroy the reality stone for a reason once we removed it from Vision last year." Steve stared at her for a moment. "But at a minimum, I can go back to prevent Thanos from winning. However, to do that, I need you to swallow your pride or maybe your fear and call, text, or send a carrier pigeon to Tony and get him to come to help us. I need to save my children." She was practically yelling at him at this point. Because even if Tony texted her back, he knew Steve would have to be the one to ask. Tony would do a lot of things for Steve.

"Text Stark." Laura heard a voice say from the doorway.

"Melinda, really?" Steve asked his wife.

"I've been essentially functioning as an intermediary between the two of you for the last five years and I need you to work through your problems. We need him to have a chance. Simmons is not well, and Bruce doesn't completely understand what he's doing. Deke almost knew what he was doing, but he's missing now. I don't like saying this, but Morgan's dad is our only hope right now."

"One conversation isn't going to solve anything."

"But it's a place to start," Laura tells him.

To be continued…

I also want to say I'm ridiculously excited for the final season of AOS to begin on May 27.


	10. C7: You Need a New Deputy Director

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fabulous. It's time for some fun with Steve and Tony. However, it's Dr. and Mr. Stark-Rogers this time around. The awkward adventures of Steve May-Rogers and Tony Potts will be up soon, I promise.

Steve's current designation on his non-avenger line is cuddle fiancé. Aren't they so adorable? Also, I seriously wonder if they should contact each other on the Avenger line, but they can't flirt on the Avenger line.

* * *

**Conversation 7: You're Going to Need a New Deputy Director**

XXXX

Anthony love: So, theoretically, the messages that I sent you several hours ago should have managed to make it to your location.

Anthony love: Maybe. Ana was a little confused once she managed to get back online after digesting five years worth of data from the other Avengers. In addition to downloading time travel schematics or maybe it's creating dimensional portals schematics. I'm still uncertain.

Anthony love: We're not entirely sure how Friday from 2023 managed to send the data through with our visitor, but it's probably going to be useful. At a minimum, it's going to be less annoying than Deke, the future SI chief creative officer. Other Tony must still be drinking.

Anthony love: I haven't had a chance to go over the files yet. My child is forcing me to get at least a few hours of sleep before I even began. Okay, she dragged me out of the lab.

Anthony love: But you know I can't sleep when I don't know where you are so maybe I should try to debrief you. I know Karen sent you the minutes from this evening's all Avenger briefing, but I got a headache during the briefing, so I'm sure reading that dense report will cause the same in even a super-soldier.

Anthony love: I'm not even sure where to start with what's going on. Maybe I should let you know that our daughter is fine after experiencing some weird overload thing due to alternate dimension interference.

Anthony love: Apparently, Friday 2023 didn't realize that Friday 2018 is a reality stone enhanced LMD, and Ana is now her appropriate counterpart. This is apparently because Friday 2023 isn't from our future but the original James Leopold's future. Or you know how it turned out after he was flung through the monolith.

Anthony love: Apologies for jumping around, but it's going to happen. Maybe you will have to read the notes from the meeting. Sorry snuggle munchkin.

Anthony love: Also, Flash is now recuperating nicely in his room because he may have passed out when he found out Benji is Spider-Man. That's going to be a fun conversation. Am I a sadist for making them share a room with one bed? Maybe. I gave them supplies. The ex is long gone, and I accidentally read a message Flash sent to Peter that involved the words massage and come.

Anthony love: Oh, that reminds me, I am also going to have to inform MJ that her cousin is MIA if we don't get a message from her in the next 48 hours. We're bringing her to the compound anyway.

Anthony love: I hope that goes better than telling Lily and Corey about their missing mom. When you see me, I'm going to be a little bruised. Clint should be here in an hour, and chances are I'll end up with more bruises. He punched the wall on the quinjet during his holo-call into the all-hands meeting. So, this is probably not going to go well at all.

Anthony love: But if I found out you were taken to another timeline by my alternate timeline double, I would probably break a wall too. Mainly because the Fitzsimmons kid is awful at delivery.

Anthony love: Okay, maybe I should've started there.

Anthony love: So today or maybe yesterday at this point, on the day that happens to coincide with when Fitz bounced back to our timeline, two people from that timeline came to our timeline. One who, according to multiple DNA tests is the grandchild of the Fitzsimmons is stuck here. The other is Clint, who managed to take his sort of wife back to his timeline.

Anthony love: I probably should be trying to figure out a way to get her back, but the fact that you are MIA along with Daisy was distracting.

Anthony love: Oh, apparently, they were in our timeline to figure out if they can gather all the stones throughout history to undo the fact that Thanos won in their timeline. So apparently in at least one timeline, Robin was right, and we may all be fucked.

Anthony love: You know what just hurry home so I can explain all the stuff in person and maybe we can have stress release sex. That would be nice.

Anthony love: PS: Still sober, but we did send Hunter out to get more of the Ben & Jerry's Capt. America pie and Agent America salted caramel swirl. I may have had 2 pints. This is better for my liver, but not necessarily for my waistline. Will you still love me if I'm not a size 2?

Anthony love: Please write back to me soon and let me know that you're alive or at least still in this timeline. It's been a weird day. Good news Clint didn't hit me, but he did cry on me. I gave him some of my ice cream. He's a mess.

Anthony love: Write back soon, cuddle bunny. I miss you. Still can't sleep. I'm worried that the end is near.

Cuddle fiancé: You have never been a size 2 in your life, and I will always love you regardless.

Anthony love: I would say something about the fact that I haven't heard from you in 14 hours, but I'm very happy that you finally wrote back. Are you okay? Where were you?

Cuddle fiancé: We're fine. We have Coulson, although Hal is dead.

Anthony love: I'm not surprised. I'll have Mace and Burroughs work on the cover-up press guidance. According to the Fitzsimmons grandchild, she was Hydra. A Hydra operative that wanted to prevent Thanos from destroying the world, but still Hydra.

Cuddle fiancé: I'm aware. After New York, Hydra recovered an alien communications device and contacted a consortium that referred to itself as the Confederacy.

Cuddle fiancé: Fitzsimmons grandchild?

Anthony love: Any group that refers to itself as the Confederacy is not a group that you want to go anywhere near.

Anthony love: I'll explain that when you get here. Short answer alternate timeline refugee.

Cuddle fiancé: That's nothing new.

Anthony love: Please explain how Hydra managed to get in league with a group called the Confederacy. That seems like a potential Hydra ally.

Cuddle fiancé: I'm not even entirely sure myself. Although they promised to protect the Earth from Thanos in exchange for the Gravitonium and all the Inhumans.

Anthony love: I feel like you said no to those demands.

Cuddle fiancé: Robbie did with his chain through the representative's heart. Apparently, they just wanted to strip all of Earth's resources before Thanos arrived to kill us all. He has quite the reputation of conquering planets and killing half the inhabitants.

Anthony love: This is what you expect from a group referred to as the Confederacy. Jokes on them since we know Thanos is planning to kill half of everybody, including them. He just needs the stones on our planet to do so.

Cuddle fiancé: We tried to tell them that, but they didn't believe us.

Anthony love: Which is why there's now a bunch of dead aliens?

Cuddle fiancé: Yes.

Anthony love: Do we need to worry about a second set of aliens invading?

Cuddle fiancé: No, they don't like people that fight back, especially Wanda. She was with us because of the signing ceremony. Although the Confederacy did kill the General for her insolence.

Anthony love: Honestly, they did me a favor. After Coulson was kidnapped by my number two, I sent a Shield team to her loft led by Davis. They found her 16-year-old daughter locked in her room. The team is still looking through things, but it's not good. Although with her dead, that investigation will take a backseat as we deal with time travel and impending alien invasion, but we're still going to have to have the PR team spin things around.

Cuddle fiancé: Fuck. You never like that woman.

Anthony love: I think it's because I instinctively pick up on child abusers. I'm dispatching Suarez and Cruz to deal with Ruby. I would send Laura, but she was kidnapped by Clint 2023. Also, from what Deke told me they probably could all use a therapist or 6.

Cuddle fiancé: I'm sorry.

Anthony love: I'm just happy we have Coulson back, mainly because he's now my acting Deputy Director.

Cuddle fiancé: Will be home soon. Home. While we were trying to find Coulson, Joey and Vision signed the Mumbai agreement as the US and UN Avengers representatives. I'm now allowed back on American soil.

Anthony love: Just in time for the impending alien apocalypse. Perfect timing, snuggle bug.

Cuddle fiancé: I think we will be there in a few hours. I can't believe I'm able to come back to the compound. Although I wish I was going to see our house in Queens for the first time, but this doesn't seem like the time.

Anthony love: Make that the lighthouse, but at least you'll get to decide if you want it to be our wedding venue. Although we're going to have to choose a different day because April 28 is now off the table.

Cuddle fiancé: "?"

Anthony love: Because Laura was kidnapped from the compound, we are relocating to the lighthouse for the moment. The Princess is coming.

Cuddle fiancé: So, this really is all hands on deck?

Anthony love: In the timeline that the FitzSimmons grandkid came from, Thanos managed to wipe out half of all living life on April 28, 2018.

Cuddle fiancé: So new wedding date?

Anthony love: Two days after we beat the purple son of a bitch.

Cuddle fiancé: You're on.

Anthony love: God, I love you.

To be continued


	11. C 8: Your Tony Issues

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all so fabulous.

We are back in the "Tony and Steve are morons" timeline.

This chapter is from the perspective of Steve's cell phone. Morgan's dad refers to Tony "Potts." You'll just have to wait to see what Tony refers to Steve as in his cell phone. I am open to hearing your guesses

* * *

**Conversation 8: We Are Not Losing Another Apocalypse Due to Your Tony Issues**

Melinda: Have you called Stark yet? It's been almost an entire day.

Steve: I've been busy trying to coax Simmons out of the framework. She says she's in their consulting with an imprint of Fitz to see if he can help.

Melinda: That's not what she's doing. You know that. She stuck in her fantasy reality again. Probably with half a bottle of wine, at least.

Steve: I know.

Melinda: I am aware you're afraid to talk to Tony, but we need him. I think you're the only one who can convince him to help us.

Steve: I don't want him to think that I only talk to him when I need something from him.

Melinda: We've been to too many Chucky cheese days with Morgan for him to believe that.

Steve: Fine. I'll text because I always say the wrong thing when I call him.

Melinda: This is true. I hope that you're eventually able to keep your foot out of your mouth long enough to give me a reason to sign the divorce papers someday.

Steve: Not many people would

believe that you're a romantic at heart. Even if somehow Tony forgives me, he is with Pepper. He loves Pepper. I think it will take years for us just to get to the point of being friends. There's too much baggage, and I don't know how to work through it. I don't even know where to start.

Melinda: They've been engaged longer than we've been married.

Steve: Not everybody gets married for the reasons we did.

Melinda: Lots of people get married because they need emotional support and have survived drama together. We're together to hold each other to reality. You would be an even bigger prick without me.

Steve: Maybe. Do you still need me for that? Because if what we're doing works, we're still not going to be able to bring back Phil. He's gone.

Melinda: I know he is, but I'll get to see my mom, Daisy, Mack, and even Bobbi again. Besides that, I need you to take the second chance that I wasted. You rarely get a third opportunity. I should know.

Steve: I know. What if we can only be friends. What if maybe that's all we should be?

Melinda: Then it would be better than what you have now. Friendship is never a consolation prize. You need to keep moving forward. Even if we can undo what happened, we still must live with the scars.

Steve: I know that, but it's easier said than done.

Melinda: Nothing happens if you don't try. Isn't that what you always tell our daughters? Maybe you should stop preaching to everyone else and take your own damn advice.

Steve: I hate it when you do this.

Melinda: You need me to do this. You know we need Stark. You need him.

Steve: But I wasn't there when he needed me.

Melinda: I wasn't there when Loki stabbed Phil through the heart, but I was there six years later when he died for the second time from his injuries. You can't change the past. If it was possible, we wouldn't have Deke.

Steve: I thought that was what we were trying to do.

Melinda: No, we're trying to make new futures, but all the mistakes we made that led us here are still there, and they must be dealt with. Texting Tony is your first step.

Steve: You're right. I'll try.

Melinda: I'll go try to get Simmons out of the framework. I know we need to know what she did if Stark is going to undo it.

Steve: Maybe you could apologize for yelling at her.

Melinda: Maybe.

Steve: You're the closest thing she has to a mom with both her parents and siblings also gone. You need each other.

Melinda: Go deal with Stark.

* * *

Steve: Hey, I thought I would just check in to see how Robin is doing. Thank you for letting her stay there for a few days. She always says that you make homework fun for her.

Morgan's dad: It's no problem at all. Morgan needs socialization. Although you don't need to send a thank you text message. Your scary half has been doing that for the last week since you dropped your kid off here so you can go on your save the world mission.

Steve: She wanted to stay there, and Pepper said it was OK.

Morgan's dad: Morgan loves having a playmate.

Steve: Robin loves being there. She says that they're supposed to be sisters someday. I have no idea what that means.

Morgan's dad: Robin is fine, by the way. She's mad that you left her with us. She also keeps drawing a picture of Scott coming out of the van as a baby. Is there something you need to tell me?

Steve: That was a few days ago. We've moved past that.

Morgan's dad: So, you would tell me if something went wrong? I know you hate to ask people for help because you think you can do it all on your own, but sometimes it's necessary.

Steve: Yes, of course. Things are going slow because this really isn't Bruce's field, and Simmons is rarely sober, but they're working on it. I know you don't want to be here anyway.

Morgan's dad: You know they say the first step is admitting you have a problem. Also, don't put words in my mouth.

Steve: I need to go. May and Simmons are having a disagreement.

Morgan's dad: Isn't that usually the job of my Head of R&D. Who incidentally hasn't checked-in in about two days? Despite his save the world sabbatical, I still expect to see him playing on my server. Is there something you need to tell me?

Morgan's dad: I kept working on the time travel thing, by the way, and I gave Deke access. So, don't say I don't want to help because I do, but I need you to meet me halfway. I need you to…

Morgan's dad: I don't know what I need. Remember when I said I needed you, but I didn't need you now. That was a lie. Why do you always have to be such a self-righteous dick? [Message not sent]

To be continued

* * *

This begins the return of the unsent messages. And unlike in the "Tony and Steve had their ship together" timeline, this Friday isn't in Emma mode. So, she's probably not going to employ loophole abuse to send them anyway. That was probably totally Leo's fault.

Also, a quick note about updates, I am probably going to be posting every two weeks for a little while as I wait for the next batch of chapters. I don't want us to have a really long break, so I am trying to spread things out.


	12. C9: Steve and Tony can't deal

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all wonderful. We are still in the "bad choices were made" timeline. We are going to be here for at least another chapter after this one.

**Conversation 9: Steve and Tony can't deal with their feelings part II**

* * *

Tony Potts: Steve texted me and yet neglected to mention his alternate timeline houseguest before making up some weird excuse to end the conversation.

Counselor Laura: That does not surprise me at all. I think I hear him and May yelling in the hallway right now. I also hear Simmons crying. I am also 99% sure she's drunk right now. I would know.

Tony Potts: Okay, maybe it wasn't entirely an excuse. I know from Deke and my nanny that the Simmons situation is unstable I.e. Deke tried to get her in rehab three times in the last year alone. It must be worse with him being gone.

Tony Potts: But Steve could've started with "Hey, Tony, we need you to come to the compound because we fucked up."

Tony Potts: Like I would love it if for once, Steve would say, "Sorry, I screwed up, and I need you. Please come help me." Why is that so hard for him to say?

Counselor Laura: Is it safe to assume that Mr. May-Rogers never worked with a therapist to deal with any of his issues? Has anybody here seen a therapist?

Tony Potts: I don't know. Stevie bear works as a counselor at a community center somewhere in Brooklyn. Although I doubt that he's gotten help himself. He's too busy trying to save everyone else to save himself.

Counselor Laura: I understand that. Too well. I'm also starting to wonder who in the universe I pissed off to have to deal with "Tony and Steve can't deal with their feelings" part two because you know it's not just him. You also have a saving people problem.

Tony Potts: I think this is at least part three. Part two would've been after the purple one beat the fuck out of us. We didn't truly talk again after that until I got an invitation to his wedding.

Tony Potts: Actually, if he spoke to me before then, there may not have been a wedding. I could have helped May get custody of her kids with the legal team. But no, he just had to do it himself. Is it really that hard to ask for help? Or is it only hard for him to ask for my help?

Counselor Laura: That must've been brutal. Also, it's always hard for people to ask for help. I relapsed three times before I agreed to go to rehab. It's even harder to ask again when you've been rejected before.

Tony Potts: You do have a point. You're right, I did not react well to Steve getting married even knowing that it was a semi platonic thing to get children. Like I had to schedule my own trip to rehab the day after the ceremony. Pepper left.

Counselor Laura: But she came back? You have a house in the woods in upstate New York together?

Tony Potts: She realized she was three months pregnant with Morgan. I needed three DNA tests before I believed her, which might be why we are still just publicly engaged after all these years.

Tony Potts: Pepper mostly stays in the house in Manhattan, and I prefer to be with Morgan by the lake. It makes sense because Pepper is the CEO of SI. Of course, we mostly do survival stuff now because of Deke. We took over his think tank and made him our chief creative officer about 3 1/2 years ago.

Counselor Laura: Someday, we're going to have to have a conversation about that, but I'm more curious about Morgan's existence.

Tony Potts: Because I'm assuming Dr. Stark-Rogers is very sterile?

Counselor Laura: Yes. Friday and the Princess created an LMD child for him since the state of New York did not want to let him adopt or even be a foster parent at the time. Wanda, who is married to Vision, gave her a bit of a stone boost. So, she's as close to human as possible and still be synthetic.

Tony Potts: Considering what Thanos is about to do, that's probably the safest thing.

Counselor Laura: Possibly. Although they have no trouble with you fostering now, even with Steve moving back soon. See picture attached.

Counselor Laura: Although Miles is the son of two of your employees who are doing a special rebuilding project in Puerto Rico and Dr. Stark-Rogers is taking care of him in the interim.

Tony Potts: Good to know. Although how did I end up the foster parent of Peter's biggest high school antagonist?

Counselor Laura: I can't tell you most of it because it's classified, but Flash and Peter are sort of friends now.

Tony Potts: OK, I don't think I want to know.

Tony Potts: So, when the purple asshole took out half of life in the universe down to the amoeba level, he decided to make it so I could have children. The result was Morgan

Counselor Laura: Granted, I've been told Thanos' motives through my Robin's visions, but I thought he wanted to destroy half of life so the other half could thrive. Genocidal population control if you will. Isn't eliminating fertility issues counter to that?

Tony Potts: I think it's just me. There have been no widespread reports of previously unfertile people being able to have children.

Counselor Laura: When Steve and May came to your house last week to asked you to help with their Time travel project, why did you say no? Was it because of Morgan? Because you don't want to leave her behind if things go badly.

Tony Potts: Because I don't want her to poof out of existence if we undo everything.

Tony Potts: Fuck! That's his plan to make sure I wouldn't help. Evil, manipulative asshole.

Counselor Laura: I don't think anybody would want that. I mean, it wouldn't just be Morgan. It would be any baby born in the last five years. That would be repeating what Thanos did. That wouldn't be right.

Counselor Laura: It would just be better to bring those that were snapped out of existence back, even if it would be five years in the future.

Counselor Laura: Tony?

Counselor Laura: Are you still there?

Counselor Laura: Tony?

* * *

To be continued

I had this idea for a while that Tony was able to conceive Morgan because of stone magic. It was the purple one's backup plan to keep Tony from messing up his vision. Although I bet, he didn't plan on Tony figuring that out. More to come.


	13. C 10: DILF

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fabulous. Oddly enough, this was the second conversation I drafted for this story. However, I realized we needed to go through a bit before we get to Tony Potts and Mr. May-Rogers having a text message heart-to-heart.

Steve May-Rogers is referred to as DILF in Tony's address book. You may continue speculating about the actual state of Tony and Pepper's relationship. Tell me your speculation in the comments.

* * *

**Conversation 10: Maybe we should have had this conversation seven years ago**

DILF: That wasn't an excuse not to talk to you. Melinda was trying to figure out how things went wrong, and Simmons was not cooperative at all and it escalated. Deke is not here.

DILF: By not here, I mean stuck in an alternate timeline 2018. It turns out Simmons's fiancé didn't die five years ago in the explosion, but was sent back in time and created another timeline. Obviously, our attempts at undoing everything is not going as planned.

Tony: Although I'm upset that Pepper's chief creative officer is MIA, I'm glad it's not you. Maybe I shouldn't have let him look at my time travel theory work.

Tony: I would really hate for Robin's prediction of becoming Morgan's sister to come true because you and Mrs. May-Rogers got lost in the stream of time. The kids have already lost enough parents, and Morgan is only as good as she is because of Pepper. I'm an absolute mess.

DILF: You're not. You're a good dad. You retired just so you could be a stay-at-home parent.

Tony: I still have a nanny part-time because I can get caught in the creative zone.

DILF: You still do some SI work. It's understandable. Also, your nanny doubles as a bodyguard.

Tony: I don't want to lose what I have now if you and Ms. May-Rogers somehow magically turn back the clock five years. Morgan is my everything.

DILF: We're not planning to do that. At the minimum, Robin would kick me in the shin.

Tony: Robin does love her future little sister.

DILF: Morgan wasn't the only child born in the last five years. We would be wiping all of those people out. We would be no better than Thanos if we did that. We just want to bring everybody back. Don't you want Peter back?

Tony: Yes.

Tony: Except that is not happening yet because apparently, Deke is missing. So would you like to explain why your daughter drew a picture of Clint wearing a nanotech suit that I know Deke borrowed the design from my servers and Clint's wife that's been snapped for the last five years?

DILF: Have you considered not letting Deke have access to your servers?

Tony: Would you believe I did so because your child that draws the future told me too?

DILF: Tony Stark never does what is expected of him. Why start now?

Tony: It's Tony Potts-Stark.

DILF: Despite the fact, the wedding has been on hold for five years.

Tony: We wanted Morgan to have the same last name as us. It's more important that we're committed to Morgan then if we have paperwork filed with the state. Besides, I don't think Pepper wants to have a big wedding without her mom, and Happy would hate to miss it. He's like our biggest shipper. Although now I'm starting to wonder why he shipped us so much.

DILF: You know if you were with us, we might be able to fix things so they could be at the wedding, but that's not happening right now.

Tony: Mostly because whatever you're doing is failing miserably without me. Deke is missing, and apparently, you have Laura from the good timeline crashing at the compound.

DILF: And apparently any success we had at all was because you were feeding Deke information.

Tony: He is my chief creative officer. Although maybe I should've been less cryptic since he's now missing. Pepper is not happy. The board is going to be pissed if he stays missing.

DILF: I've wanted to ask you why you made him chief creative officer for years. How did that happen?

Tony: Yet you have not asked before now despite how many times we've hung out together at Chucky Cheese.

DILF: Maybe because I don't know how to talk to you. It's just easier to go through a whole basket of mozzarella sticks and churros.

Tony: The churros are halfway decent now.

Tony: You're doing well now, but that's probably because I think you're trying to avoid me. Or are you afraid of asking for help because you know that you need me. I feel like other Laura would like to get back to her kids.

DILF: I already asked you for help, and you said no. I don't want you to think I only come to you when I need your help because I don't want you to think that. I don't want you to think I'm losing you.

DILF: I mean using you. I never want you to think that.

Tony: Except I open my house to your kids. Even Kamala is going to spend this weekend with Pepper instead of coming here. Also, I have been spending many a sleepless night this week trying to perfect time travel even if I've just been passing the information to Deke.

DILF: Is this like before when you tried to keep Ross away from us? I only know of everything you did to keep Ross away because May told me.

Tony: Yes. However, Morgan must be my priority.

DILF: You don't think Robin and Kamala are my priority? I don't want Robin to keep living in this broken world. Her drawings of us restoring everybody has been the first happy thing she has drawn since May and I received full custody of her.

DILF: When Scott showed up last week, I thought maybe just maybe we could give her and her big sister a better future. Do you have any idea how many times I have held Kamala as she cried about missing her parents and her brother? They deserve better and so does Morgan.

Tony: Then tell me the truth.

DILF: We fucked up. Natasha and Simmons managed to convince Clint to come to help us.

Tony: Which wouldn't be that hard because I'm sure he wants his kids back.

DILF: Yes, he agreed to be the test subject. As you so eloquently pointed out, Deke and Simmons stole your work. The original plan was for Clint to go back to his farmhouse before the decimation and retrieve an object, but at the last minute, Deke went with him too.

Tony: If Robin's drawings are to be believed, the object he retrieved was his wife?

DILF: I know, you know. Friday probably told you.

Tony: She just confirmed the prophetic drawings of your child. Is this a good or bad thing?

DILF: Simmons didn't believe that we could get the stones; at least not without help. So, she used a piece of the monolith and the Pym particles to send Deke to retrieve her Fitz. At least we think that's what she did. She's not confirming anything

Tony: And somehow you ended up with a Laura from a world where you and I are married?

DILF: Technically, the wedding doesn't happen until April 28.

Tony: Of course, they would pick that as the wedding day.

DILF: Wait, how do you know that?

Tony: I have my sources.

DILF: Laura?

Tony: Along with Friday. So, you finally broke down and messaged me because you need me?

DILF: I always need you.

Tony: Well, thankfully for you, it's your lucky day. Look out the window.

DILF: You're here? Also, is that the shield in that bag you're carrying?

Tony: I may have been texting you from the front of the compound for the last 15 minutes. Of course, I brought your shield because otherwise, Robin and Morgan will try to use it to slide down the hill the moment we get snow. I don't trust Nanny Hunter to say no.

DILF: I can see that happening even if your nanny is a former Shield agent.

Tony: Hunter is my nanny. It would probably be his idea.

DILF: We can't let that happen. I'm coming to meet you.

Tony: I am surprised Avenger Friday hasn't alerted you to my presence yet.

Avenger Friday: Ms. Robin told me not to. She said you needed to talk things out first.

Tony: Why does my AI like your kids better than me?

"I have no idea." Tony looks up to see Steve reply verbally as he grabs the bag from Tony and pulls him into a half hug. "Come on in. I'm glad you're here."

To be continued

Even if Tony is mostly a stay-at-home dad, I feel like he would still need a nanny, mainly because in this verse, Pepper is still working. Extra adult supervision would be required if Tony got into the creative zone or was forced to spend quality time with the board. I love the idea of nanny Hunter from my Hydra lullaby story. Part bodyguard, part driver, and occasional babysitter. With Happy gone, Tony's going to need someone else. I always believe Tony needs more friends.

Finally, the next batch of 13 chapters are off at proofreading. I will post the next chapter as soon as I get it, but it might be more than two weeks.


	14. C 11: Daddy's little LMD

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are so lovely. Welcome back to the "we made better choices" timeline.

This is the first chapter of the second batch of chapters. Of the 13 chapters, only one was written after AOS season seven premiered. I am going to be incorporating some elements from AOS season seven. There's a lot of history that will enhance the story. However, there's one thing that threw a wrench into things (Endgame did that too, but we were able to ignore that), and I am still deciding how I'm going to handle that. I have an idea, but I think I want to wait until the season is done to put it into play. This is why I'm going to keep with the updating every other week schedule until at least the end of AOS.

Although, I'm ecstatic that Hydra Lullaby got something really right. At the same time, I'm upset that's the thing Hydra Lullaby got right. I won't say what that is due to my 30-day spoiler rule. It's been so long since we've had anything Marvel to talk about in the comments. However, feel free to PM me on FF dot net.

BITC is short for boy in the chair and is Ned's codename. Because nobody wants to keep typing that, an acronym is now being used.

* * *

**Conversation 11: Daddy's little LMD**

Girl Friday: Hey, Dad, where are you? Did you sneak back down to your office here or the lab? You need to sleep. I know we're now in active apocalypse mode, but sleep is essential. You make bad decisions when you are sleep deprived.

Girl Friday: Okay, I've checked your lab, and you're not there, which is good. You're also not anywhere else. Not good. I guess it's time to ask my little sister for help.

Xxxxx

Girl Friday: Hey baby sister, where is our dad?

Ana Jr.: Your father is currently not at the Lighthouse. He left 45 minutes ago.

Girl Friday: Which means he got no sleep.

Ana Jr.: Technically, he was able to sleep for one hour and 21 minutes. He was agitated when Agent America woke him up. Apparently, he was having one of the good dreams.

Girl Friday: Agent America dragging you out of bed to parts unknown is never a good sign. I would ask if they went on a mission, but right now, everything's a mission. I hate active apocalypse mode.

Ana Jr.: He is on a mission, and I am not allowed to tell you where your father is currently en route to.

Girl Friday: You're no fun, little sister.

Ana Jr.: I was able to make you a copy of all the records I downloaded from the other timeline. Since they were initially sent to you, it seems only prudent that you can access the information in a form you can process.

Girl Friday: You are the best baby sister. I assume you're making a portal for the new consultant to have access too. Can we bring BITC in yet, or am I going to have to wait until school?

Ana Jr.: A Stark pad has been prepared for her when she arrives. I have made one for both you and Spidey. Your father was adamant that the data stay off the network. Therefore, you will have to hand-deliver one to BITC. If you remember correctly, he is with his mom this weekend.

Girl Friday: Considering what we talked about last night, that's probably wise. So, if he's with his mom, I can't even send a text message because she hates me. Loves my cousin but hates me, and she's the one who caused him to pass out in the first place. It wasn't my fault he couldn't reconcile his email friend with my Royal cousin.

Ana Jr.: I believe she was more upset about you inviting him to a wedding that was attacked by terrorists.

Girl Friday: Nobody expected Alastair to crash the wedding after he was paid off to keep quiet. That was not my fault. Can you make another one for Flash? Also, make sure that the documents are compatible with his screen reading software.

Ana Jr.: Of course. You can pick them up on floor 27 in five minutes.

Girl Friday: Thank you, little sister.

XXXX

Girl Friday: okay, Ana has confirmed that you're not on base anymore due to May dragging you out of bed with just a little more than an hour of sleep. Apparently, you're on a mission, which means she can't tell me where you are. [Six pouting face emojis]

Girl Friday: I don't think that's fair. [Six more pouting face emojis] I'm an Avenger. I should know these things. I'm going to check on Peter. I now must deliver a Stark pad to him and the not-a-boyfriend.

Girl Friday: Since you're busy on another mission, we are going to start research and figure out what not to do. I want to thank my other self for sending us all the records, except for the part where I lost consciousness. I really am getting the full-blown human experience. Some of it feels overrated.

Girl Friday: Although silver lining, Flash finally knows. You have no idea how nice it is not to be keeping that secret anymore.

Girl Friday: Hey dad, were you the one that put them in a room with one bed? Because neither one of them took the couch.

Girl Friday: Image one attached.

Girl Friday: Pants were still on, but their shirts were off. Allegedly, it's too hot. That room was 65°. I am rolling my eyes so hard right now. As well as sending the picture to both the princess and MJ. MJ never turns down shirtless Benji.

Girl Friday: I may have accidentally sent it to May PR. Oops! I better switch to the other channel.

Girl Friday: Okay, Flash just made an inappropriate joke about you going to greet Steve on the helicopter pad involving handcuffs and blow jobs.

Girl Friday: Wait, is your mission just an excuse to hook up with Cap Dad in the nearest broom closet? With Agent Agent getting kidnapped, I can see why Agent America might want to get to her boyfriend sooner rather than later.

Iron Dad: First, you're a Junior Avenger, or maybe we should go with Young Avenger. I'll have Jeffrey do a focus group. Regardless, you must be out of college before you get to be a full-fledged Avenger, and that goes for both you and Benji.

Girl Friday: That's so unfair.

Iron Dad: Even then, I tell you more than most people outside your father and the inner circle. For example, I'm not preventing Ana from giving you Stark pads full of the alternate history of the darkest timeline.

Iron Dad: Second, I would never go on a mission for the sole purpose of making out with my fiancé in a broom closet.

Iron Dad: Finally, it is Acting Deputy Dir. Agent Agent right now.

Girl Friday: You went to a UN environmental conference just to have a chance to hook up with dad. Don't say otherwise because I was the one who booked the hotel rooms.

Iron Dad: This didn't happen since I was on doctor's orders not to have sex. When not under such orders, we would at least find a decent conference room. Which might be the plan now. Of course, I get to reunite with my fiancé in the middle of a crisis.

Girl Friday: BTW, so lovely of you to finally text me back almost an hour after the first message. Where are you? Ana won't tell me.

Iron Dad: Sorry, I was on a video call with Jeffrey and the minion, which is why I couldn't reply to your litany of text messages. I need to get Jane to leave SI and come work for the ATCU.

Girl Friday: I think she prefers Leo as her boss. Despite the fact she had to cover up that he met with Asgardians yesterday and is secretly in charge of the UN Avengers.

Iron Dad: Sorry, I worried you. I thought Ana would've interrupted and told you I am currently en route to the Playground because I have a 10 AM with the president.

Girl Friday: If I remember correctly when I was just an AI, I had standing orders not to tell anybody when you were meeting with the president. Not even Pepper. I feel like little sister might have this code as well.

Iron Dad: Probably. I will have to add an exempt list.

Girl Friday: Why do you have a 10 AM with the president?

Iron Dad: Officially to celebrate the finalization of the Mumbai agreement and to do damage control regarding the untimely traffic accident death of my number two. Unofficially to tell the president that he almost put Hydra in charge of Shield, again. I owe Mack a hundred dollars because she turned out to be Hydra. I personally thought she was a Watchdog sympathizer.

Iron dad: I also get to tell the president that she was conspiring with a consortium of aliens that referred to themselves as the confederacy.

Iron Dad: I feel like this is something you can't tell the president in an email. I'm not even sure how to begin talking about it in person. At least not without ending up in a mental hospital again.

Girl Friday: I'm inclined to agree. Now I understand why you had a long conference call with Jeffrey.

Iron Dad: The minion was involved as well, which is never a good sign, and they don't even know about Thanos.

Girl Friday: That makes sense. Jeffrey wasn't there for the briefing last night.

Iron Dad: Because I wanted him to focus on navigating the Gen. situation, which apparently means a press conference with the president.

Girl Friday: Understandable. Will Cap Dad be with you?

Iron Dad: I don't know. You know I am the one in charge, so I'm going to go ask your almost step-dad to come to DC.

Girl Friday: You should probably do that. I feel like you need backup.

Iron Dad: I'll call you after my play date with the president.

Girl Friday: You better. Just stay safe. I'm worried about you.

Iron Dad: I know you're scared about what happened in the other timeline, but that's not us. We've been preparing for well over a year, and we won't lose.

Girl Friday: But at what cost? [message not sent]

To be continued


	15. C 12: How to plan a reunion in DC

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fabulous. We are still in the "better choices" timeline. I wish we could alternate between the two lines, but sometimes it's better to just stay in one timeline for a few chapters before switching. I'm always going to do what's best for the narrative.

* * *

**Conversation 12: How to plan a reunion in DC**

Anthony love: Hey, sweetie pie! Are you still en route to the Lighthouse, or are you heading to the Playground?

Cuddle fiancé: Lighthouse, like you told me to earlier. Why?

Anthony love: Unfortunately, I won't be there. I'm currently on my way to the Playground because I have no control over my schedule.

Cuddle fiancé: Why?

Anthony love: I have a 10 AM with the president where I'm going to have to explain everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. I'm already two Tylenol in for the day.

Cuddle fiancé: Everything?

Anthony love: I'm still trying to figure out how to explain the time-traveling grandchild of Fitzsimmons. He isn't even from the dimension or timeline that he came from. Apparently, he is from another bad timeline because our life is weird.

Cuddle fiancé: ?

Anthony love: So apparently there's an even worse future out there. Cracked earth, inhuman slave trade, and humans on the brink of extinction, thanks to the Kree. Did you meet any Kree yesterday?

Cuddle fiancé: Not in person.

Anthony love: Your adventures with the Confederacy are also going to be on the list. I'm not exactly sure how to start that conversation with the president.

Cuddle fiancé: The truth

Anthony love: Mr. President, yesterday, my boyfriend and the other Avengers team that you're not supposed to know about saved us from aliens. These aliens were trying to invade earth to extract all our resources before the other alien coming to kill us all gets here. He doesn't want to kill us all just half of us by turning them to dust—literally, dust.

Anthony love: I feel like that's going to get me dragged to the nearest psychiatric hospital, and I don't have time for mental health rehab right now.

Cuddle fiancé: Maybe not phrase it like that.

Anthony love: Yeah, I'm not sure there's a way to phrase what's happening without possibly getting a trip to mental health rehab. That's not even going into whatever the fuck happened in Norway. That woman broke Thor's hammer! We can't even lift Thor's hammer. I hope I can keep MJ from seeing that. I hope I can prevent May from seeing that.

Cuddle fiancé: I understand how this can be difficult. I fought against actual aliens yesterday, and I'm not even sure I believe half of what was in the readout of yesterday's meeting. You didn't mention the thing about the hammer.

Anthony love: Because May was already freaking out with her boyfriend missing in a very May way. Joey, Bobbi, the sister-in-law, and Vision will be heading over there to investigate after playing for the cameras in Mumbai. Actually, Bobbi is on her way now because she can't be on camera due to Russian government issues.

Cuddle fiancé: That makes sense.

Anthony love: Baby, nothing makes sense right now. Honestly, I don't believe half the stuff Deke told me. I tuned out half of what he told me and then told him to write it in a report. Ana, has he done that yet?

Ana Jr: Not yet. I will ask him to do so once he returns from breakfast and his tour of the facilities with Simmons this morning.

Anthony love: You're the best Princess. Seriously, try to find out how he ended up the head of SI research and development. If it really happened.

Cuddle fiancé: You don't think it did?

Anthony love: Not really. Seriously why would my other self make him the new head of R&D or whatever after having a kid?

Anthony love: An actual biological child made the old-fashioned way with Pepper. Also, you know I love Pepper Pot, but we probably shouldn't raise a kid together. He had to be making that up. Everybody knows I can't have kids at all.

Anthony love: Well, not without the help of the daughter-in-law and a lot of vibranium.

Cuddle fiancé: Maybe there's some new miracle drug in that timeline?

Anthony love: If there was a miracle drug, I would've found it already.

Cuddle fiancé: Have you talked to the Princess about your infertility issues?

Anthony love: No, because there are some conversations you don't have with your daughter's best friend and "cousin."

Cuddle fiancé: Apparently, Afia is still Friday in the other timeline, so maybe the other you don't have those constraints.

Anthony love: You have a point. Also, DNA tests don't lie. Deke is the grandchild of Fitzsimmons, even though he's about half a decade older than the couple. So, unless that timeline has perfected the ability to age someone up 30 years in 5, I am inclined to at least believe the time travel aspect. As well as us getting our asses handed to us and half the world getting dusted.

Cuddle fiancé: But not other Tony having a kid with Pepper thing?

Anthony love: Or that you and I are barely on speaking terms and only talk about our kids. BTW, your other self allegedly married May and adopted Ms. Marvel, after her whole family got dusted by Thanos.

Cuddle fiancé: Is Coulson dead in that timeline?

Anthony love: Yes. How did you get that from what I just said?

Cuddle fiancé: Because that's the only way May would be married to someone else now. How did he die?

Anthony love: I'm not entirely sure. I'm planning to read through all the files from 2023 sent to us from Friday. I feel like it would be a more reliable source than anything that Deke would put together.

Cuddle fiancé: When you're not briefing the president.

Anthony love: When we are not briefing the president. How do you feel about redirecting to the Playground? I feel like I can use some backup, and we kinda need a distraction. Unfortunately, Mack and Yo-Yo are helping Sharon with a little something in San Francisco, so that leaves you.

Cuddle fiancé: Why do you need a distraction?

Anthony love: Some of the dirt about my now dead number two made it on to the Internet. They believe she died in a car crash yesterday, but some of the stuff about how she treated Ruby is now trending on Twitter. That's bad on its own. I'm regretting NYC child services getting involved because they still don't like me very well.

Cuddle fiancé: Point

Cuddle fiancé: Natasha just told me we're going to the Playground now. May radioed her and changed our route.

Anthony love: Of course, she did.

Cuddle fiancé: She also told Nat that you would give her an update on Daisy when we got there. Nat is worried because she hasn't heard from Daisy since she left for operation Quake Loki.

Anthony love: You didn't tell her?

Cuddle fiancé: That her girlfriend may be in Asgard after battling someone that can apparently break Thor's hammer? No. Did I tell Natasha that Daisy disappeared from Norway with Thor and Loki and hasn't been heard since then? No. You want me to take less risk.

Cuddle fiancé: First, when would I have time? Second, I felt like it's more your place to explain. Also, I don't know all the details because you were rambling and going off on tangents during the meeting yesterday. Your email was worse. I just now found out about the hammer thing. On its own, it is concerning.

Anthony love: I have not been rambling. I think I may have mentioned it, or maybe I didn't. I was going through coffee withdrawal at the time. I was also more worried about Laura because Daisy has superpowers, and the big scary lady was no longer on the planet. Can we just have one apocalypse at a time? Is that too much to ask for?

Cuddle fiancé: I'm quite sure you admitted yourself that you were rambling. Yes.

Anthony love: You're not getting a blow job for a month.

Cuddle fiancé: You know, if we hadn't been doing this long-distance relationship for a year and ½ your threat would be threatening. We haven't even been in the same country since Valentine's Day. I love it when we get to be physically intimate, but I can go without it for a long time.

Anthony love: Just for that, I'm not pulling you into the first empty conference room that we see. No welcome home handjob for you.

Cuddle fiancé: I don't think the Secret Service will allow that anyway.

Anthony love: I was planning to do it at the Playground where I'm the boss, but I'm not anymore because you're a brat.

Cuddle fiancé: You go on telling yourself that. Nat says we will be at the Playground in 40 minutes.

Anthony love: We get there in 5, which will give me time to prepare for Natasha giving me a matching black eye. I wonder if Fitz finished the dermal regenerator. Lily bear has excellent aim for an adolescent.

Cuddle fiancé: I could have told you that after she kicked me in the shin. If I wasn't a super-soldier, she would've broken something.

Anthony love: You deserved it for breaking her daddy's nose. I hope you sent him an apology basket for that.

Cuddle fiancé: I got him a case of beer.

Anthony love: Jeffrey is furious about the bruising. I think he would be even angrier if they need to deal with a second black eye. You can't tell the red spider about Daisy now?

Cuddle fiancé: When she's flying? Absolutely not.

Anthony love: Flaming head can't take over?

Cuddle fiancé: No. We'll see you soon.

Anthony love: You better protect me from your best friend.

Cuddle fiancé: I will always protect you.

To be continued.


	16. C13: Cookies for the Broken Bird

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are also fabulous.

We are back in the "mistakes were made" timeline. Let's talk about some of those mistakes.

Tosha is Natasha Romanoff, the head of the Avengers, or what's left of the Avengers anyway. Clint is using the name Francis because if you're going on a revenge killing spree, you're not going to use your actual name on your phone. Well, your real first name. Apparently, using your actual middle name is okay.

* * *

**Conversation 13: Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Broken Bird**

Tosha: Stark is here. We are having an all-hands meeting in the lounge in 15 minutes. He brought Steve's shield and Hunter's cookies. Hunter does the best chocolate chip cookies. Steve always brings some around after playdates.

Tosha: Steve says it's better than me living off peanut butter and jelly.

Tosha: Where are you? Seriously you're missing chocolate chip cookies. Some of them have mini Reesie cups in them too.

Tosha: Although no alcohol because we have two recovering alcoholics and Simmons. And if we're going to figure out what the hell happened, we need her somewhat sober. Apparently, that's a rare thing, according to Steve.

Tosha: I know you don't consider yourself an Avenger anymore due to certain things that we are not going to talk about in writing. However, you were the one who traveled back to 2018 in the other timeline. You were with Simmons when she was putting everything together with Deke. Did she discuss her change of plan with you?

Tosha: We can't ask Deke these questions because he's not here, and Simmons is not answering. Also, I'm 99% sure her bottle of water is tequila.

Tosha: Actually, it was vodka and not the good stuff. Probably because she drank that first. I feel like a horrible Russian.

Tosha: Friday says you're still in the building. Possibly in the air ducks. You can't keep ignoring everybody. I know you been doing it for the last five years, but I'm not letting you do it anymore.

Tosha: I know you feel guilty because you're here, and they are not. It always hurts when you're the one left behind.

Tosha: You're still my family. Family loves you, unconditionally. You taught me that.

Tosha: Look, you don't even have to say anything if you don't want to talk about what Simmons did or didn't do. I just don't want to sit alone and watch Stark and Rogers make passive-aggressive googly eyes at each other. As Simmons acts like she's not drinking hard liquor at two in the afternoon. We all know. It's even worse now that Deke is MIA.

Tosha: And no, Laura doesn't have her own water bottle full of alcohol. Unlike the Laura of this timeline, she didn't relapse while we were on the run.

Francis: There isn't a Laura in this timeline anymore.

Tosha: Now, you speak. My thumbs were starting to get sore. You can't dictate during the middle of a meeting.

Francis: I didn't have anything to say before. I've had Hunter's cookies before. They're not that great.

Tosha: Not these cookies. He brought the Heath bar version too. You can't avoid Laura forever, you're the one who brought her here.

Francis: I was trying to bring my wife back, and that's not her. So, I'll let Stark figure out how to get her back home, and I will just stay out of the way until you find a way to get the stones.

Tosha: No, she's Laura. She is just a Laura that made different choices. Or from what I gather, Stark made different choices, and she helped. Apparently, they are each other's AA sponsors.

Tasha: They both are going to a meeting after this. Because we're all too much to handle for the recovering alcoholics without the desire to drink cropping up.

Francis: That's good.

Francis: That she is sober.

Tosha: Oh great, they're arguing. Like we need this right now. I think I need to take Simmons' "water bottle."

Francis: Not surprising at all. Watching Stark and Rogers argue, is not my idea of a good time.

Tosha: No, those two are being awkward and avoiding eye contact. Probably because they both know another Steve and Tony are engaged in Agent Barton's timeline.

Tosha: When they're not making excuses to touch each other. They're trying to avoid each other, yet they are sitting next to each other, and Steve's hand just happens to be on Tony's leg now. Kamala is less awkward around Bruno.

Francis: I'm not even surprised by the impending marriage. I guess this really is the darkest timeline. Who's fighting?

Tosha: I think it's still better than the one where the Earth cracked apart, and the Kree enslave what was left of humanity.

Francis: ?

Tosha: So, you never actually talked to Deke when you were conspiring? Also, it's May and Simmons that were arguing about said conspiracy. Also, May tried to take the bottle of not actually water from Simmons. Apparently, it was never about getting the stones only about getting Fitz to her. I assume that she convinced you to go along with it because she promised you Laura.

Tosha: I knew I shouldn't have taken Simmons with me to get you from Japan. What did she say to you?

Francis: I wouldn't call it conspiring. More like an understanding.

Tosha: Because widows understand each other. Not that she was married to Fitz, they just created a marriage license to keep Alister the asshole from cashing in on all the James Leopold patents. They were engaged before he died anyway.

Francis: I don't like thinking of it that way. One minute I was sitting down to have lunch with my wife and kids, and the next, they were gone.

Tosha: During the middle of an apocalypse.

Tosha: Also, Fitz was killed about a month before the decimation, sort of. It's complicated. Although I don't think she knows how complicated yet and I'm not going to be the one to tell her.

Francis: I wasn't there for the apocalypse because I ignored Fury's calls and May's calls. I think I hung up on Coulson twice.

Tosha: Good call.

Tosha: In your defense, you thought he was dead. It's understandable.

Francis: Because no one told me otherwise until he was dead, again. Therefore, in a fight between May and Simmons, I'm going to be team Simmons all the way.

Tosha: Obviously, someone is still bitter. Simmons is starting to talk. According to Simmons, you were in on her plan to bring your wife and Leo back to this timeline.

Tosha: Apparently, she purposely chose the day that he disappeared as the day you would be traveling back to. She may have told you and Deke that you were going back to the same place, but you weren't. She was sending you to Laura and him to Fitz. She is now crying on Bruce.

Francis: That must be awkward for you.

Tosha: That was nearly 8 years ago. I'm over it.

Francis: Really?

Tosha: Never date a coworker. He'd rather run away then be with me, and that was his choice. I've moved on long ago. You would know that if you picked up the phone occasionally.

Francis: I'm not planning to get back into the dating scene any time soon, and I already learned that lesson with Phil. I'm sorry I didn't call or text.

Francis: I should have. You stayed in contact when you went dark, and I should have done the same.

Tosha: I know these last five years have been hard for you. It's pretty apparent that you're not over what happened when you join a mad scientist conspiracy to travel through space and time to get your wife back.

Francis: I thought it was going to be one of the kids or all the kids. If I brought them forward to this point in time, Thanos couldn't snap them out of existence. Then I wouldn't have to lose them, but the kids weren't there. We weren't even at the farmhouse.

Tosha: I'm so sorry.

Francis: Don't. Not right now. Maybe I avoid you to because I couldn't take the pity.

Tosha: There's a difference between pity and empathy.

Francis: Maybe I don't deserve either.

Tosha: I think I thought the same thing once upon a time. You taught me better.

Tosha: BTW, according to Bruce's notes, you grabbed Agent Barton from the Avenger compound.

Francis: Are we sure it was the compound? It didn't look like any room I recognize there. Also, Laura has never been there. Ever.

Francis: Right, not my Laura. Apparently, this one lives at the Avenger compound.

Tosha: Not necessarily, not your Laura, but again one that took a slightly different pathway that led her to be a teenage superhero guidance counselor.

Francis: Which seems like something Laura would be good at.

xxx

"Laura has always been good with kids and wayward superheroes. It's good she found a job combining the skills even if it's in another timeline." Clint looked down to see Natasha standing in front of him or rather the vent that he was hiding in.

"How did you find me?" Clint asked.

"Friday really likes Laura. However, it was decided I would come to get you since we were already talking. I brought you some cookies, but you have to come out to eat them." Natasha held up the plate of cookies for him.

"I'm not five. Also, I thought Friday was banned from talking to Agent Barton." Clint decided to refer to this Laura as Agent Barton only. Despite Natasha's argument, she was not his Laura.

"She's bonded with Stark, and he overruled my orders." That surprised Clint. Laura and Stark never actually talked to each other again after the Ultron incident. Then again, Natasha said earlier that Agent Barton was the AA sponsor of the Stark from her timeline. Time travel is strange.

"I bet that's annoying," was the only thing he said out loud.

"So annoying. I get why you don't want to be with the others. It can be overwhelming." Sitting in a room with a woman who looks exactly like his dead wife but who isn't her is more than just being overwhelming, but he's not sure how to explain that to Natasha. He doesn't even know where to begin. So, he just glares at her.

"You don't have to tell the others, but you can tell me.

Do you know how Simmons changed the plan?"

"No." He answered honestly because he wasn't paying attention to the details.

"I find that hard to believe."

"I've always been the dumb muscle." He replied.

"You've never been just the dumb muscle. Now can you please get out of the air vent, or I will have Friday use the gas on you." Natasha threatened him.

"You're so mean." He said, making his way out of the vent because he knew she would follow through. Natasha does not make idle threats. "I just want to be alone. It's been a hard couple of days."

"I know," Natasha said, handing him a cookie.

"Cookies can't make things magically better."

"I know."

"I thought I had my wife back. I should have known better. There's no hope in this world." That's when Natasha wrapped an arm around him.

"There's still hope." She whispered as she gently kissed his cheek. "We may even have more hope now than before."

"What do you mean by that?" Clint asked," slightly confused.

"Since I haven't been hiding from Laura, I know that because the Avengers weren't at each other's throats or hiding from the government, they had time to get Vision's stone out of his head." Clint's eyes opened wide in surprise at her words. Maybe just maybe there really was a chance to fix things.

"Where is it?" Because if they knew where it is, they could grab it and use it.

"Somewhere safe, but Agent Barton doesn't know the exact details."

"Or if she knows she won't tell us," Clint added.

"Which makes her a good agent," Natasha told him.

"I wonder if you are her SO?" Clint wondered out loud.

"There's only one way to find out, actually talk to your not-a-wife."

"I'm not ready for that yet." Not at all.

"Have another cookie," Natasha said as she held him closer.

To be continued

I will say I had a lot of fun writing Clint and Natasha's Interaction. I didn't have enough of it in the first story. That will change here. At this point, it's evident that this story is going to be a bit more ensemble than the first one. Although we will still be working on getting Steve and Tony 2.0 to get their heads out of their asses. Since they have seven more years of baggage, this could take a while.

I also really wished Endgame would have spent more time exploring the emotional effects of the decimation. Still, I realize there's only so much you can put in a three-hour movie. The first story in this series was 150+ chapters. We have time to dig deep into the characters' psyche.


	17. C14: Secret Society of Jr Badass Women

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are so fabulous. Welcome back to the "better choices were made" timeline.

We are on the Avenger/ATCU/Shield channels this time around, so different codenames. The Purple Princess is Afia, which is her field codename as well. The system is forcing her to use her Avenger call name now, unlike the day before, because we are now in active apocalypse mode. The genius princess is HRH Shuri. Once again, MJ is the new consultant.

* * *

**Conversation 14: The secret society of the Junior badass women of Shield/Avengers**

Group message to the Spider Venom Conspiracy group.

Purple Princess: Image one upload.

Purple Princess: image two uploaded

Purple Princess: image three uploaded

Purple Princess: Good morning, fellow members of the Spider Venom Conspiracy group. It looks like Benji had an incredibly good morning. It seems like phase 1 of operation "get their heads out of their asses" is working.

Purple Princess: Yes, they shared a bed last night. Also, notice the absence of shirts. I'm almost sure my dad's responsible for these accommodations, but he's not saying anything. I'm using the Avenger channels because of the location where said picture was taken.

Purple Princess: Okay, I switched to Avenger channels after I accidentally sent the first picture to May 2.

The new consultant: Benji is going to kill you. Although knowing her, she's just going to tell them to be safe. May 2 already offered to get me female condoms. She is okay with him being with both of us.

Genius Princess: I'm glad to see that progress has been made now that the evil one has been vanquished.

Genius Princess: Also, we have much better methods of contraception and disease prevention. If desired, I will make arrangements for you.

The new consultant: Yes. Honestly, the breakup was for the best. Also, I finally found out what happened on Valentine's Day, and it was terrible. I can't give details, so do not ask. However, your highness, I'm going to need your help in making sure the asshole ex-boyfriend gets blackballed from every college in the country. We would be doing the coed population a favor.

Genius Princess: It would be my pleasure.

Purple Princess: This is the other reason why we're on the Avenger channel right now. Only one of you has diplomatic immunity.

Genius Princess: Where is your dad? I'm trying to alert him that I am en route to the Lighthouse now, but he has yet to respond.

Purple Princess: That would be because my dad is on his way to brief the president. Apparently, he had an hour-long pre-brief with Jeffrey and is now probably texting my other dad to convince him to come to DC, so he doesn't have to do the meeting alone.

Purple Princess: Now that it's an option. I'm so happy it's an option. We fix the Accords. We had to scrap them and start over, but it's better than what we had.

The new consultant: Because it wasn't negotiated in bad faith this time. Do I want to know why your father is meeting with the president?

Purple Princess: I'm sure, at a minimum, he is explaining to the president that General Hale didn't actually die in a traffic accident. How much Dad actually tells the man I'm not sure. Basically, he's there for damage control. Especially with Uncle Platypus still in Mumbai doing press there.

The new consultant: Is it true that Hale kept her daughter chained to her bed in her condo? Flash always felt something was off with Ruby.

Purple Princess: Oh great, we have a leak problem. Of course, Flash would notice something. She was Hydra, by the way.

Genius Princess: This is not surprising. It's not from Shield, but from the NYPD or local child services. We are taking care of it.

Purple Princess: Which has a history of being dirty or despising my father. Why did you decide to give me the ability to have a headache?

Genius Princess: That would be your sister-in-law.

The new consultant: Let's get back to why your dad is meeting with the president. I'm sure it's not all about the general situation.

Purple Princess: She was Hydra, which means that they're going to have to do another round of ferreting people out. I feel like that should warrant a presidential briefing all on its own.

The new consultant: I still feel like there's more. My cousin is in Asgard right now. There's so much you're not telling me. You already mentioned a possible time travel Clint yesterday or rather this morning.

Purple Princess: I don't think this line is encrypted enough for this conversation.

Genius Princess: In addition to the time travel, we are also dealing with an alien invasion by a group called the Confederacy, new Hydra, and finally another possible alien invasion resulting in half the universe being wiped out.

Purple Princess: I just said I didn't want to have this conversation here. We were just talking about a leak problem.

Genius Princess: By questioning my encryption abilities. Never question my encryption abilities.

The new consultant: Did you say, aliens? As in plural alien invasions. Aliens that want to wipe out half of the Earth.

Genius Princess: Half of the universe.

The new consultant: That just makes it worse. What the fuck is going on?

Purple Princess: A lot.

The new consultant: We are getting another alien invasion? With time travel?

Purple Princess: Yes

Genius Princess: Actually, we almost had one yesterday. The Secret Avengers took care of it. That's how General Hale died.

The new consultant: Okay, I can see how that alone would warrant a presidential meeting.

Purple Princess: How do you even know that?

Genius Princess: If it wasn't for the time difference, I would've been on the call yesterday. Ana sent me the readout this morning, along with the files that she downloaded from the other timeline.

Purple Princess: Ana isn't supposed to upload those files to the Internet.

Genius Princess: She uploaded them to the Wakanda intelligence network. It is an entirely different and extremely secure system.

The new consultant: Now I think my cousin might be in Asgard to get you help?

Purple Princess: From a certain point of view.

The new consultant: You watch way too much Star Wars. Which is why I don't trust what you just said at all right now.

Genius Princess: I will be at the Lighthouse in two hours. We will have a briefing. I would bring BITC in, but he's with his mom this weekend, and she doesn't like your dad very well.

Purple Princess: Or me. So, she won't let him come up here, not after what happened last time. She doesn't even let him come to the house in Queens. We must go to him unless he's with his dad. It's been a year, and she's still mad about what happened last year at the wedding. Like that was my dad's fault.

The new consultant: Only for not having Alastair taken out earlier. When will I be getting to the Lighthouse? You said that I would be coming over.

Purple Princess: As soon as I can get someone to come to get you. Dad said he was sending somebody yesterday, but I can't confirm that with him right now because he's probably texting Cap Dad.

Genius Princess: I'll come to get you. I'll be there in about 70 minutes. Be ready.

Purple Princess: It only takes less than a half an hour to get to the Lighthouse by quin-jet level craft.

Genius Princess: I want to pick up pizza for everybody

The new consultant: It's too early for pizza. Bagels? Or maybe waffles? Beignets? Although I was promised pancakes.

Purple Princess: It's never too early or late for a Stark to get pizza in any of the five boroughs. I'll take care of it. The usual order will be waiting for you when you get to MJ's apartment and maybe a cheesecake. Cheesecake seems necessary.

The new consultant: Necessary if aliens are invading. I need to go and take a shower and change before you get here your Royal highness. Also, I assume I should pack a bag?

Purple Princess: At a minimum, you will stay over tonight, maybe longer. Dad's going to have to talk to our principal.

Genius Princess: Your spring break starts Friday?

The new consultant: Yes. Oh good, the apocalypse is starting right on time to take away our spring break.

XXXX

Purple Princess: Have you heard anything from Daisy yet?

Genius Princess: Not from Daisy herself, but from the version of Ana uploaded into her communicator. She's not on Asgard.

Purple Princess: Where is she then?

Genius Princess: I'm still trying to figure that out. I wanted to enlist the BITC's help, but his mother won't allow it.

Purple Princess: Which is so unfair. He's going to be so mad at us for having an adventure without him.

Genius Princess: He shouldn't be. I would prefer to sit this out myself.

Purple Princess: Wouldn't we all? Are you bringing the glove?

Genius Princess: Yes, I think it's time for us to prepare for the endgame.

XXXX

Avenger mission report of Agent Daisy Johnson; UN Avengers member

Location: Grand Master's pleasure ship, not sure of the name of his ship yet. Too afraid to ask.

Time: Unsure, 81 hours after arrival

Good news, Loki did not promise that I would be the Grand Master's new concubine. Although, I wonder if Loki made no such promise regarding himself. Surprisingly, I was ready to quake the Grand Master when he tried to grope Loki's breasts. I think that's when I stopped hating him a little bit.

We've talked some. It was bound to happen. Loki is the only person here that I sort of know. Not about New York, but the other things like how I ended up on team Coulson and how Loki found out he was adopted.

I also asked about pronoun preferences. Loki prefers that I use the masculine pronoun in private, but the female pronoun around the Grand Master.

Loki also knows that I have a communications device. More importantly, he knows I have someone that can create portals. Apparently, he knows all about Robbie. I wonder if the Rider would kill Loki on sight. I'm not as sure about that as I used to be. Maybe people do change.

I'm being called to mingle with the Grand Master's court. I hope Earth gets one of my messages very soon. If he tries to touch my boobs again, I will quake him or show him that thing that Tosha taught me. He looks humanoid enough to get just as broken.

Okay, now I miss Tasha even more. I just want to come home.

To be continued.

This is also the final update before the series finale of AOS. I'm trying not to cry. At least the story will keep me sane.


	18. C15: Coparenting the Tony & Pepper Way

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fantastic.

Welcome back to the "terrible choices were made" timeline. This conversation takes place about a day after the last one in this timeline.

Text message key: Pepper Pot is Pepper Potts Stark. Tony is Tony because it's his phone. Have I mentioned yet in one of these notes that I'm never doing "me" again as a text message ID? I've been helping with translating the first story into Chinese, and I've learned from my many mistakes.

**Conversation 15: Coparenting the Tony and Pepper Way**

* * *

Pepper pot: So, for planning purposes, are you going to be staying at the compound overnight again? I want to know if I should have Hunter bring the kids into the city.

Pepper pot: Mr. Hunter is an excellent nanny, but even I don't think he wants to do two overnights with our children completely alone.

Tony: Especially when one kid can tell you about your past, present, and future. He wasn't exactly happy to find pictures of what looked like a threesome between him, Simmons, and the deceased Fitz. Although that doesn't seem as far-fetched now. It's been a weird few days.

Pepper Pot: Exactly. I would go to them except with Deke MIA and you trying to get him back, I'm not able to take Morgan time off right now. So, they should come here.

Tony: Which would be a relief to Hunter. I'm sure Hunter would prefer hunting Hydra again to more than 48 continuous hours with the kids by himself.

Pepper pot: No problem. I'll call him. Do you know how many days you might be gone?

Tony: I don't know. The mission is different now. It's gone from trying to get the stones to getting Laura back to her own timeline/dimension and Deke back to us. I already figured out time travel GPS, but that's not what happened according to what she told us before throwing up. Unfortunately, Simmons's notes are pretty much indecipherable. It's hard to fix something when you're not sure what you're trying to fix.

Pepper pot: That hard?

Tony: Never tried to decipher the scientific writings of a chronically depressed alcoholic who's obsessed with her dead lover. The only stuff I can understand are the notes that she wrote to Fitz, or I guess we're supposed to call him Leo. This whole situation is a mind fuck.

Pepper pot: I'm an expert at this point in deciphering the drunk ramblings of a genius inventor. It's been a couple years, but I might be able to help. You could have Friday send them to me.

Tony: No, that's okay. I don't want to get you involved.

Pepper pot: I'm already involved, and you didn't even ask.

Tony: You're mad at me.

Pepper pot: I'm not mad at you.

Tony: I feel like you are despite the fact you said that I could help with this.

Pepper pot: I want you to help. I really would like my chief creative officer/R&D head back.

Tony: That's because you don't want to tell the board he's trapped in 2018, the better version.

Pepper pot: I'm never telling them that. I would prefer not to get locked out of the company before Morgan is old enough to take over.

Tony: You have a point. What did you tell the board?

Pepper pot: That he's going to consider their suggestion that he go to grad school. He's on a private campus tour to check out a few doctorate programs.

Tony: They bought that?

Pepper pot: They don't like the fact that Deke doesn't have a doctorate.

Tony: They don't even know that he doesn't have any degree at all, let alone that he won't be born for another 30 years. You know if his grandfather didn't disappear.

Pepper pot: Maybe when you were creating his new identity, you could have put a doctorate in there instead of just the master's degree.

Tony: I think Daisy put most of his fake background together before. The only thing he changed was his last name to Fitzsimmons. I think it was his way of honoring his late grandfather.

Tony: BTW, according to the special house guest, he wasn't dead; he was just bounced back in time and created a new branch timeline. Therefore, time GPS is essential.

Pepper pot: My head hurts so much right now.

Tony: I brought out the industrial-strength Tylenol. I think it might be worse for me.

Pepper pot: How can it be worse?

Tony: My other self is engaged to Steve in the alternate timeline because, apparently, the fate of the world hinges on us being on speaking terms.

Pepper pot: What?

Tony: Shit! I didn't mean to send that part. Sorry. I haven't slept in like 24 hours. You know I send weird text messages when I don't sleep.

Pepper pot: You can't take back the fact that your other self married Steve.

Tony: It wasn't me.

Pepper pot: But don't you wish it was you?

Tony: I don't think I should answer that question. Otherwise, I'm going to end up on the couch for the next month.

Pepper pot: You've been on the metaphorical couch since before Morgan was born. It's why we have separate houses and bedrooms. I'm not stupid, Tony.

Pepper pot: It's obvious where you stand on him considering that you have Steve listed currently as DILF, a.k.a. dad I like to fuck in your address book. Before that, it was America's ass. Let's not even talk about how you acted when he got married. I'm not stupid, Tony.

Tony: A lot of mistakes were made. I'm sorry I accused you of fucking someone else when I found out you were pregnant. I said a lot of things to you that day that I shouldn't have.

Pepper pot: I understand you thought you were sterile. I thought you were sterile. It's why I wasn't worried when I was not able to get my favorite birth control due to the rationing right after the decimation.

Tony: I'm still sorry. I know you wouldn't cheat on me. I was just being a dick. It's my default setting when I'm scared. Nothing terrifies me more than children.

Tony: Okay, nothing terrifies me more than a situation where I can end up becoming Howard. You know I never want to become Howard.

Pepper pot: I accept your apology for the 50th time. Why are you bringing this up again? I thought we moved past it.

Tony: Remember when I told you about our new timeline refugee Laura from the good timeline. That Tony decided to get a child through science and made an LMD baby or rather teenager because New York State wouldn't let him adopt either.

Pepper pot: That's unfortunate. You're a good dad.

Tony: It's okay. He's allowed to be a foster parent now—a foster parent to Flash of all people, but still a foster parent. When we were talking about that, I think I figured out how Morgan came to be.

Pepper pot: You said it was the stones.

Tony: Which is what I told Laura, and then she pointed out that magically healing my sperm count doesn't exactly go along with the purple asshole's MO.

Pepper pot: That makes sense.

Tony: Therefore, there had to be another reason. Something that furthers the prick's goals.

Tony: You know I was reluctant to help with operation time heist.

Pepper pot: Because you don't want to risk accidentally wiping Morgan out of existence. Which I agree with because I don't want my daughter to be wiped out of existence.

Tony: You will be happy to know Steve doesn't want to wipe out all the babies born in the last five years out of existence, either. So, our kid is safe.

Tony: Also, Robin would probably kick him in the nuts if he got rid of her best friend.

Pepper pot: It would probably be best to avoid that. Robin keeps saying that they're going to end up sisters someday. Which makes sense because it happened in another timeline, sort of.

Tony: Just because something happened in one time doesn't mean that it will happen here. Too many bridges have been burned to ash.

Pepper pot: They can always be rebuilt. You managed to get back on speaking terms with me before Morgan was born. Which you now apparently believe happened because Thanos didn't want you to help undo his master plan.

Tony: You're good. I mean, it makes sense. I retired because of Morgan.

Pepper pot: You retired because of your health issues and because you didn't want to see Steve married to someone else.

Tony: We both know it is a marriage of convenience, and no, it was Morgan. Howard was murdered when I was 21 because of his work with Shield. You know I try to avoid being Howard, and I don't want to put myself at risk.

Pepper pot: Yet you are at the compound right now. Is it because of Steve?

Tony: I don't want to keep raising Morgan in this broken world where mommy and daddy pretend to be engaged. Maybe I don't want her to see me almost on the verge of tears whenever I hear the name Peter. We couldn't even have the Peter rabbit books in the house.

Pepper pot: Morgan was furious about that.

Tony: I know. I just want things to be better. I need to try.

Pepper pot: Okay. I promise I'll support you. We're still friends.

Tony: Also, the situation is different now because the time heist ended up being a time kidnapping. Before they were just getting the stones. Now I need to get a mom back to her kids so she can make sure that she doesn't lose them, and I know you want Deke back.

Pepper pot: That part, I understand. Although how does that affect things here? You said time travel is closer to Star Trek than Back to the Future?

Tony: I'm still trying to figure that out.

Pepper pot: If anybody can figure out how to solve two problems simultaneously, it's you.

Tony: I'm trying anyway. I need to go. Laura, from the good timeline, just showed up in my lab with coffee. Give the babies my love.

Pepper pot: Will do. I'll never separate you from your coffee. I'll talk to you soon.

Xxx

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. It's just you've been down a while. I thought you could use some coffee." She was carrying one of the extra-large cups along with a granola bar. Bless her.

"Thank you. I would've made a cup myself, but apparently, the machine down here has been replaced with a minibar." He was not happy to find that earlier.

"Do we have time to stage an intervention?" He knew Laura was serious too. They tried to get Simmons to go with them to an AA meeting yesterday after the disastrous all-hands meeting where she threw up on Laura, but they were unsuccessful. Tony does not want to think about how much alcohol had to be consumed for that to happen. Maybe it was stress and not just alcohol. He was too afraid to ask Friday for her BAL. It had to be at least triple the legal limit.

"We will schedule it for immediately after when we get you back home." When we get Deke back, Tony thought in his head. "As soon as I figure out what the hell she was trying to do. Because it wasn't what I was trying to do. Monolith particles were involved, I think."

"Or we can do it tomorrow. I feel like you need me for this. At a minimum, we should get the minibar out of here." Laura said, pointing to the bar.

"This is true. Inebriated inventing is dangerous." And he should know.

"And maybe have Friday reactivate the breathalyzer lab protocol," Laura suggested.

"Good idea, and I'm not going to ask how you know about that protocol."

"Remember, I am other Tony's sponsor and former sobriety coach." Laura reminded him.

"That's right." Which will be useful to deal with the Simmons situation and maybe even the Thor situation. Tony had Friday keeping tabs on the former Avenger. If the drunken rants during Frontier live streams are any indication, Laura's services are going to be needed. "Of course, this doesn't deal with the problem at hand." Focus on one crisis at a time.

"You want me to try to talk to Clint?" Laura asked.

"Natasha already tried, and she got nothing." Or at least nothing she would tell Tony.

"But he might tell me the truth?" Laura asked.

"Maybe. We tend to be more honest with our significant others."

"I'll try. Clint will probably run away from me again, but I'll try." Laura said with a sigh.

"I feel a but coming."

"If I'm going to talk to Clint or more likely text message my alternate timeline husband, then I want you and Steve to have another conversation. May I suggest breakfast tomorrow morning?"

"Steve and I have conversed. We hugged in the parking lot. I gave him the Shield. We're good now." Laura responded with an exasperated sigh.

"No. I'm sorry we're going to need more than one good conversation for you and Steve to work through the mountain of bull shit that is your relationship. Remember, I've lived through this once. It took a while with less shit to work through."

"We've had more than one conversation." Tony is almost sure that Laura started mumbling the serenity prayer under her breath.

"Yesterday's all Avengers meeting doesn't actually count either." Laura rolled her eyes at him. "There was a lot of touching and awkward eye contact, but not a lot of actual talking."

"There was not a lot of touching," Tony argued back.

"Friday, sweetie, how many times did Tony touch Steve yesterday during the meeting?" Laura asked the AI.

"22 times, including removing cookie crumbs from Steve's mouth twice." The AI answered.

"It's a dad reflex," Tony argued, knowing better.

"And how many times did Steve touch Tony?" Laura asked.

"23 times, including caressing his thigh four times." At Friday's response, Tony was profoundly regretting giving Laura Friday privileges again.

"He's married, and I'm engaged to Pepper," Laura responds with a glare.

"Fine, I will do breakfast or maybe lunch with the good Capt. tomorrow. Just talk to your husband to figure out what happened."

"Thank you."

To be continued

Spoiler alert: This A/N contains spoilers for AOS season 7, especially episode 7.4. Basically, this is an update on how the timeline will work in the story. It turns out we are a bit more of a branch timeline than I initially thought.

I absolutely love season seven of AOS, and it's probably my favorite. (Sorry UK fans who haven't got to see it yet.) That being said, not that much will be used in this story. Mostly what I'm planning to use is related to additional guidance on how the rules of time travel work in the MCU multiverse. As well as some of the background information that can still apply to the current timeline. This is because that season is in a different branch of the multiverse than this story. Somehow this story takes place in a timeline where Hydra didn't kill Daniel in 1955, and somehow, he found his way back to Peggy. How did that happen? What does that mean? (Other than I can't have my new favorite ship in the story.) You're just going to have to sit back and enjoy.


	19. C 16: Level 3 Friendship

Original A/N April 2020: Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are so Absolutely Fabulous.

Welcome back to the "good" timeline. Remember, time is going slowly there. There is a reason, and it will be revealed soon.

Updated A/N September 2020: You're probably aware by this point that I write these chapters months in advance before posting, A/N and all. Especially right now because my beta reader is on vacation at the moment. I have everything written up to conversation 22 already and those chapters are in various stages of proofreading.

But we as a community had a very rough week. The loss of Chadwick Boseman hit the fandom hard as if it was a direct shot to our collective heart. He brought a character that we needed to life, but from all accounts, he was an amazing human being. It always hurts when we lose one more amazing human being, especially when cancer is involved.

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I lost two family members to cancer around Thanksgiving 2015. One right before and one right after. Boseman's death has brought back a lot of those memories. I do empathize with his family and loved ones. This is not an easy loss; it never is. It takes time to process grief, and then it's never truly processed. You just get better at dealing with it. Grief isn't linear. You move forward, but you don't really move on. Sometimes moving forward involves a zigzag pattern. But talking about grief helps us move forward, we have to.

**Conversation 16: Level 3 Friendship**

The new consultant: Hey, we just got here. We brought food. Just me and the Princess. Even Her Highness couldn't talk Ned's mom into letting him come back here.

Venom: I'm okay with that. What did you bring? The cafeteria mostly had cereal and other dry goods this morning. They weren't expecting an Avenger invasion. Not that I had much of an appetite anyway. We also wanted to avoid everything that is the Fitzsimmons family awkwardness.

The new consultant: That explains why we brought groceries in addition to pizza and bagels. Good pizza. Your favorite white pizza with sausage. You're going to have to explain the family awkwardness when I get there.

Venom: You are too perfect.

The new consultant: The Princess would like to know if you and the others want us to come to you, or do you guys want to come down to the Wakanda Embassy section to talk? We would have more space in the suites. I saw pictures of your room and its very dystopian chic, especially with the one bed perfect for cuddling.

Venom: Afia sent pictures, didn't she?

Venom: I deserve cuddling after finding out my boyfriend was sleeping with someone else and blaming it on me because I don't want to put out. After receiving a readout of last night's all Avenger's meeting, I think I understand why Benji was so amenable to cuddling.

The new consultant: How much do you know?

Venom: A lot. This morning I found out why Peter is not going to make a move on you this summer because our field trip is probably going to get called off on account of a giant purple alien that wants to wipe out half of the universe. Also, apparently, that already happened once. I was part of the 50% that was wiped out of existence.

The new consultant: Shit!

Venom: The standalone Stark pad that Afia gave me didn't have the training wheels protocol in place. So, I got to see everything.

Venom: Oh, my ex parents apparently didn't give a fuck about me being gone. Liz reported my dusting instead of my parents.

The new consultant: You know you're better off without them. If it makes you feel better, apparently, I'm also part of the 50% along with my mom and cousin. Although my dad apparently went on to remarry and have another kid.

Venom: Fuck him. So, you got your own Stark pad?

The new consultant: Wakanda Tech holo-pad. On the way here, the Princess asked me to start looking at the files that were transmitted from 2023. So, we could figure out how not to make the same mistakes.

The new consultant: The first thing I did was see what happened to Daisy there.

Venom: And the second thing you did was look for yourself?

The new consultant: Third, after my mom. I don't think they knew that they were related, which is kind of sad.

Venom: Peter and Afia have decided that we should go down to the Royal Embassy because there's more space down there and apparently better food. We consumed most of the ice cream and chocolate on base last night.

The new consultant: Okay, we are on our way there. It's for the best anyway. I don't think we can all squeeze on that one bed. Like you guessed, Afia did send us a picture of you guys in bed together this morning. I see working out together is paying off.

Venom: Of course, that's how you knew. Nothing happened.

The new consultant: Other than cuddling around each other without shirts on. You know I'm okay with it. You two are cute together.

Venom: Well, Benji was planning to make a move on you during our European trip, so it doesn't matter.

The new consultant: But he's not now because of the pending alien apocalypse?

Venom: Yes.

The new consultant: Or because you just broke up with your boyfriend yesterday and you now know who he really is, so he needs to reassess things. That's why he's not making a move now.

The new consultant: You know I don't see this as a competition between us. I never have.

Venom: I know that, but I'm not entirely sure Benji realizes he doesn't need to choose or if I'm even a possible choice.

The new consultant: I think he knows you are a choice.

Venom: Maybe. Benji has been reading the books that you have been giving him, and he considers himself demisexual when it comes to guys, so maybe there's progress.

The new consultant: Exactly. Now we just need to get him to read the books about polyandry.

Venom: Fine, I'm not entirely against this plan of yours. We just need to make sure Benji is on board.

The new consultant: Which is what I need. Honestly, I don't think I can take dating Benji without you. Just being the cousin of a superhero is hard. I'm already terrified of getting a message one day that she's gone. I'm worried that's what I'm gonna find out when I go to the compound because nobody's telling me anything except for the Princess.

Venom: What did she tell you?

The new consultant: That she's not on Asgard but another planet. Ana won't even let me have access to her last suit cam video. Stark himself blocked it, and the Princess won't override it.

Venom: That's not good.

The new consultant: I know, but I'm not going to push until I'm at least there at the compound because I don't want to find out alone.

Venom: I thought you consider the Princess a friend?

The new consultant: She is, but like a level one friend. However, you need a level three friend for this.

Venom: And I'm a Level 3 friend?

The new consultant: I wouldn't consider boyfriend sharing with somebody who wasn't at least a Level 3. Even Ned is just level 2.

Venom: So, when this is all over with, are we just going to lock Benji in a room with us until he gets a clue?

The new consultant: I was hoping for spring break, but other things are more pressing. Did you look up what happened to Benji?

Venom: No, I was too afraid to. But the end of the world is no excuse to rush things. Also, I'm still processing a breakup that happened less than 24 hours ago.

The new consultant: Because you don't want this to be a rebound? Also, let's be honest, the breakup really happened on Valentine's Day. Yesterday, was confirmation.

Venom: I do not want a rebound relationship. You know if the world wasn't ending, I wouldn't even be considering this right now at all. It's too soon.

The new consultant: It's not going to end if we can help it. This can be your motivation to make sure it doesn't happen. We will have a plan. That's why we're meeting up to come up with one after all the research.

Venom: Just us?

The new consultant: Well, most of the adults are in DC meeting with the president.

Venom: That is not a good sign.

The new consultant: Although they're supposed to have an all-hands meeting when everyone gets back. The Princess thinks we can put a plan together before then.

Venom: One can hope.

To be continued

New A/N: May we all be fortunate enough to have level 3 friends to help us get through the tough moments in life.


	20. C17: The Missing Significant Others Club

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are so wonderful. I'm posting this early this morning because I have to go out shopping in person—the horror of it all.

Since we've already spent some quality time with the Natasha and Clint of the "bad timeline," I thought we could check in on their "better timeline" counterparts. Although considering both their partners are MIA, they might not see this as the "better" timeline.

Purple arrow is Clint, and Red spider is Natasha.

* * *

**Conversation 17: The Missing Significant Others Club**

Purple arrow: Where are you? You said that we would have breakfast together, and its lunchtime. Not that I can get the kids to eat anything.

Purple arrow: I could use you right now. Your goddaughter is currently crying on my lap again. Apparently, they're flashing back to when Ross kidnapped Laura.

Red spider: Ana sent me a picture. She's gotten so big. She's like a foot taller than she was last summer in Malta. When did that happen?

Purple arrow: Overnight. She's at least three inches taller since I was here in February. It seems like I'm missing so much with the separation.

Red spider: I know.

Purple arrow: Which seems so stupid now under the circumstances.

Red spider You never explained why you separated again. Steve just got a text from his fiancée one day in September, letting him know that you were taking over the Malibu house for a while.

Purple arrow: I can't talk about it right now.

Red spider: Are you okay?

Purple arrow: My wife was kidnapped by another version of myself from five years into the future. Worst of all, I wasn't there.

Red spider: You will not listen to me if I tell you that your presence would not have made a difference?

Purple arrow: Not at all.

Red spider: If I weren't currently going through the briefing material, I would ask about the future doppelgänger thing.

Purple arrow: At least you've been briefed. However, that could have happened here.

Red spider: I'm at meetings at the playground as Stark and Rogers play for the cameras.

Purple arrow: I know I've seen shots of them making out on Twitter. Just because Steve went to save Tony from his meeting with the president doesn't mean that you need to be there. The kids need you.

Red spider: I know, but I need to play the game if I don't want to be on the raft. You know I'm on parole now. After the debriefings, I must do a press conference as well.

Purple arrow: You need to do it now? They couldn't wait for you to at least spend one day at home.

Red spider: Jeffrey wants us to pretend that we're not in the middle of a crisis. It's part of the Avenger brand rehabilitation.

Purple arrow: More like the beginning of a crisis than the middle of a crisis. Also, I despise Jeffrey, which is why I'm sticking with retirement.

Red spider: I fought aliens yesterday. I fought a consortium of multiple alien races that refer to themselves as the Confederacy.

Red spider: You dislike Jeffrey because he asked out your wife that you're legally separated from.

Purple arrow: What is the plural of apocalypse? Because apparently, we're in the middle of more than one.

Purple arrow: Also, Laura said no because Laura has taste.

Red spider: My girlfriend disappeared with two Asgardians, and Stark won't tell me where she is. Or he doesn't know where she is after one hell of a fight yesterday with another alien.

Purple arrow: Did you ask Avenger Ana where she is?

Red spider: Yes, I did ask her, and she said, not Asgard.

Purple arrow: That seems concerning.

Red spider: Then I was able to watch the bodycam footage that quickly cuts out after Thor and his brother get their asses handed to them by their alleged sister.

Purple arrow: That's not good.

Red spider: Obviously, I'm worried.

Purple arrow: Watching the video doesn't make it any better. I know it made me feel worse seeing Laura just disappear.

Red spider: No, but better me then MJ. Besides, I didn't want May and Coulson to watch it alone. She's their little girl.

Purple arrow: This is true, although MJ is probably going to be dating a superhero soon. So, she should learn the hazards of that now.

Red spider: She keeps telling Daisy that they're just friends.

Purple arrow: Daisy keeps telling people that you guys are just friends.

Purple arrow: No one buys it.

Red spider: Not all of us can get away with dating a fugitive. Daisy already has enough of an image problem. No need to add to it right now.

Purple arrow: Plus, you don't want to send the Freaking Cool shippers into a frenzy again. They're still getting over the shock of Stony being "canon," and it's been over a year.

Red spider: It's not my fault that they assumed most of the original Avengers were straight, despite Stark's gay sex tape from the 90s.

Purple arrow: They blamed the cocaine. I can't wait until they find out Asgardians don't do orientations.

Red spider: Or Agent America's boyfriend is your ex-boyfriend.

Purple arrow: I'm trying to decide if the shippers will love us or hate us.

Red spider: Probably some strange combination of the two. How are you, really?

Purple arrow: I think you asked that question already.

Red spider: You never actually answered.

Purple arrow: Probably because I'm not sure how to answer. I wasn't here, and Laura's gone. I want her back, but at the same time, we are in the middle of multiple alien invasions, apparently.

Red spider: I don't think the Confederacy is coming back. They are a little terrified of Wanda and Robbie.

Purple arrow: Rightfully so.

Red spider: We also didn't leave that many alive.

Purple arrow: Also, not surprising. Is Stark's daughter-in-law with you?

Red spider: No, she's doing press in Mumbai with the King, Deputy Assistant Secretary Rhodes, Vision, and Joey. She's also there to brief them on what's really going on.

Red spider: The rest of us wanted to get back to the states. Robbie wants to see his brother, he's at Culver now because of Stark, and Sam's grandma is forcing him to come to Sunday dinner this weekend. She said he's missed too many.

Purple arrow: I'm sure Jeffrey will have cameras there to capture the reunion. Anything for it not to look like we're in the middle of a crisis.

Red spider: Well, for Sam anyway. No one can know about Robbie.

Purple arrow: Point. What about Bobbi? I know she was keeping a low profile in Mumbai.

Red spider: She was still there and helped us kick alien ass. Bobby doesn't want to see her ex-husband with his new "husband," so she is moving on to the West Coast Avengers. Stark has a cover job there waiting for her, and Mack could use her. If things didn't blow up, I was going to set you two up.

Purple arrow: No dating ever again. How are you doing? I'm not the only one with a missing significant other right now.

Red spider: Quake's a big girl; she can handle herself.

Purple arrow: I just convinced Ana to show me the last footage from Quake's suit before losing the signal, and I'm a bit concerned.

Red spider: So am I. Which is why I am looking through the records brought over from the other timeline.

Purple arrow: There are records?

Red spider: Yes. Don't ask me how. You know Stark gave his boy access to everything.

Purple arrow: This means you have access to everything.

Red spider: He's awful at passwords.

Purple arrow: Or you're incredibly good at breaking into things.

Red spider: [rolling my eyes emoji]

Purple Arrow: So, what have you found out so far?

Red spider: That I don't think Daisy and I were even together. She was the one who fought the Confederacy, and she ended up getting dusted when Thanos snapped his fingers.

Purple arrow: During the conference call yesterday, Deke said that Thanos wiped out half of all life in the universe. He also wouldn't make eye contact with me.

Red spider: I'm sure that he has his reasons.

Red spider: Hey, I have to go. Apparently, I need to be part of the Rose garden press conference. I do not like Jeffrey. At least he's not in charge of Shield here.

Purple arrow: Why are we doing Rose Garden press conferences right now?

Red spider: So, the entire planet doesn't find out that Coulson was kidnapped by aliens trying to raid the Earth of resources before another alien shows up.

Purple arrow: We really can't just have one crisis at a time, can we?

Red spider: No. I need to go. May is glaring at me again.

Xxxxx

Purple arrow: Hey Ana, you have a list of everybody who was lost during the decimation in the other timeline in your data bank, right?

Avenger Ana: Yes, although I am not allowed to answer your questions regarding if your wife and children survived the decimation.

Purple arrow: The fact that a block is in place for that information tells me that they didn't.

Avenger Ana: I cannot confirm nor deny this.

Purple arrow: You just confirmed it. Can you tell me what happened with Thor? Since obviously last time around, Daisy wasn't with him.

Avenger Ana: According to the archives, Thor was unwilling to talk about what happened with his sister. He lost an eye. Although he was given a prosthesis. However, Valkarie and Dr. Banner did provide a report of what happened that I have access to.

Purple arrow: I have so many questions. Am I allowed to have access to these reports? Also, why was Bruce with Thor?

Avenger Ana: I think that information would be in the reports. A standalone Stark pad is waiting for you on floor 27.

Purple arrow: I will pick that up as soon as I no longer have kids sleeping on me.

Purple arrow: Can you block MJ's access to these reports?

Avenger Ana: Already done.

Purple arrow: Thank you.

To be continued…


	21. AvengerShield mission report 2

Thank you to everybody who read or review the last conversation. You're so fabulous. Now it is time for more mission reports.

This chapter was technically written in the "good timeline" but by a "bad timeline" refugee. A double bad timeline refugee at that. Poor Deke.

This is the first time I've written anything from his perspective, so I feel like it's going to be fun.

I also wrote the chapter long before I saw all season seven of AOS, but I love how this turned out in hindsight.

* * *

**Avenger/Shield mission report 2: Confessions of a Timeline Refugee**

Shield Consultant: Deke S. Fitzsimmons

Location: The Lighthouse (why do I always end up back in this fucking place)

Time: March 25, 2018? My watch kind of broke on the way here.

I don't really know how to do these mission report things. Director Stark (how did that happen?) asked me to write a report on how I ended up here. Does he realize I'm not actually a Shield agent? However, his fiancé is my boss in my timeline (my Tony, not this, Tony). I'm going to do what he says. I'm sure if anybody can get me fired when I arrive back to the right timeline, it would be him.

Also, it beats spending more time with the sober and not chronically depressed version of Nana. You know the version my mom told me about that I never knew. I got stuck with the one mourning a guy who's not dead who decided to shack up with Hunter, Hunter.

I am not surprised Pepper, and Stark are not together in this timeline. I'm quite sure they're only still together for Morgan, and even then, I wonder if it's a show for the board. They are assholes. Pepper said all the good members didn't survive the decimation.

Regardless Tony and Pepper love that kid, but Pepper tells me things. So, I know not everything is how it seems in the media. We spent a lot of time together because she's one of my friends. If anybody understands dealing with an alcoholic parent, it's her. We talk a lot, and that situation is complicated. So complicated.

xxxxx

Friday: Although this is fascinating, please try to keep your report to the relevant topic at hand, which would be how you arrived. Also, the boss would like to know how you ended up the head of R&D.

D Fitzsimmons: SI took over my think tank, and I'm exceptionally good at charming the board when they're not complaining about my lack of a Ph.D. Also, I think they decided to keep an eye on me, so they asked me to join the company. I think my current title is Chief Creative Officer. It changes a lot.

Ana Jr.: That seems reasonable. Also, I have taken the liberty of updating your address book to reflect my name.

D Fitzsimmons: What happened to Friday? I like her, she's my friend. She makes sure I understand all the pop-culture references that I missed growing up in a world controlled by the Blues. I love the 80s so much. They had the best music. Also, The Breakfast Club is the best movie ever.

Ana Jr.: That was a protocol initially created to help Steve Rogers acclimate to the 21st-century. I'm glad a new use was found for the protocol. Nothing happened to my big sister Friday. You met her last night. She now goes by the name Afia Stark-Rogers.

D Fitzsimmons: Stark's kid? So, she's like Enoch?

Ana Jr.: She thinks of herself as the daughter of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.

D Fitzsimmons: I wonder what my boss will think of that. It's less strange than the fact that my grandfather is sleeping with Hunter. I guess Nana and Bobo have the same taste in men. This is so weird.

Ana Jr.: Who is Enoch? Also, who are Nana and Bobo?

D Fitzsimmons: A sentient Chronicom from the planet Chronyca-2, who never interferes when it's necessary. Nana and Bobo were my mom's names for her parents. She never actually told me the real names because the Blues would probably kill her for it.

Ana Jr.: To answer your earlier question, Afia is a mine stone enhanced LMD.

D Fitzsimmons: So, the stones still exist here? Or rather, they still exist in a form other than atomic dust?

Ana Jr.: Yes, the stones still exist. James Leopold originally wanted to destroy the one they retrieved from Vision, but Robin said not to.

D Fitzsimmons: You mean she drew a picture telling them not to. She's not exactly the most verbal person.

Ana Jr.: She is improving under treatment in Wakanda.

D Fitzsimmons: That's different.

Ana Jr.: I was asked to help you write up your report.

D Fitzsimmons: I'm getting to the point just in a roundabout way. The story of how I ended up here involves my grandparents and how we thought one of them was dead but, in reality, was just shacking up with Hunter. That's just going to send Nana off the deep end and straight into the bottle. Or more like keep her there. Like I need that.

Ana Jr.: Per the DNA test, I assume that Agent Simmons is your grandmother. I also assume in your timeline, she's an alcoholic?

D Fitzsimmons: Alcoholic would be putting it nicely. Nana is not okay and hasn't been for well over five years.

Ana Junior: Why is that?

D Fitzsimmons: That's what I'm trying to write about. Five and a half years ago, Leo Fitz ended up being killed in a blast that destroyed the monoliths. This just happened to be the day I came back to with my grandparents from the future before I knew they were my grandparents. He was dead before I knew the truth. Leo Fitz ended up being killed in a blast that destroyed the monoliths. Of course, Nana didn't have time to grieve because we had to keep the world from getting cracked apart. We did, then Thanos showed up. We lost Daisy, Mack, and Yo-Yo. Later Coulson died again, which just made things worse if such a thing were possible.

Ana Jr.: According to my records, Yo-Yo did not die in the decimation.

D Fitzsimmons: Thanos killed her during the battle.

Ana Jr.: Of course, unlike what you assumed, Leopold Fitz did not die in the explosion. He was transported back in time.

D Fitzsimmons: Exactly, and we really should have considered this possibility, since that's how I ended up in 2018 about a month before half of all life in the universe was wiped out by Thanos. I'm glad I survived because it would've been horrible to travel 70 some years into the past only to get wiped out of existence.

D Fitzsimmons: I guess Nana considered it, which is why she sent me back to the day I first arrived.

D Fitzsimmons: Well, the same day in a completely different timeline.

Ana Jr.: What were you trying to accomplish when she sent you back in time?

D Fitzsimmons: After Thanos won, he didn't want anybody to undo what he did. So, the purple prick reduced the infinity stones to subatomic particles that could not undo what he did. For the last five years, Nana has been working on time travel. She thought she could re-create the monoliths, but she's been unsuccessful. About two weeks ago, Scott showed up at the Avenger compound's front door after being missing for five years. This provided us with a way to fix things that don't involve the monoliths that are in pieces.

Ana Jr.: And by fix things, you mean undoing the snap?

D Fitzsimmons: Yes. Well, May, Steve, Natasha, and my plan was to go back in time, grab the stones, and undo all the damage. Although Steve is adamant that we don't get rid of any of the new children born in the last five years. Stark called it a time heist. I'm not sure it was Nana's plan.

Ana Jr.: You said that she's been working on time travel for the last five years.

D Fitzsimmons: Yes. Well, maybe 4 ½ years, ever since we found the dusted body of Bobo 2 in that cryo-chamber. She started after she cursed us for changing the timeline the first time. I could understand her anger, but I still feel that what happened is still better then what's left of humanity being able to fit in the Lighthouse.

Ana Jr.: I thought you said that Thanos wiped out half of all life in the universe.

D Fitzsimmons: Better for humans, maybe not best for the rest of the universe. Or maybe not. The snap could've happened in that timeline as well. I don't know because the Blues deleted history.

Ana Jr.: So, Dr. Simmons was trying to use time travel to undo the snap?

D Fitzsimmons: Actually, I think it was more about getting Fitz back. Either Fitz, honestly. I don't think she cared about which one she got. She is obsessed with it.

D Fitzsimmons: I wanted her to come work for SI. It's an excellent job. Pepper is the best boss, but she refused. All she does is drink and try to figure out a way to go back in time. May and Natasha keep her at the Avenger compound because they feel guilty. Although maybe Steve thought Nat and Nana could be lonely together.

D Fitzsimmons: I take that back, sometimes she's with Hunter. He's my boss's nanny. They have an understanding.

Ana Jr.: Please tell me more about how you ended up here.

D Fitzsimmons: As mentioned before, two weeks ago, things changed when Scott Lang mysteriously showed up five years after disappearing thanks to the Quantum Realm and the Pym particles. We had a new avenue to research. One that was more fruitful than the monoliths. That's when we decided to try to bring Stark on board.

Ana Junior: I assume that was not a successful endeavor?

D Fitzsimmons: Not at all. I wanted to go to my boss alone to ask her if she was willing to convince Stark to work on the project with us. Instead, May and her husband, Captain Rogers, went. According to Pepper and May, that went badly. Both said something about pigheaded morons in love.

D Fitzsimmons: Okay, Pepper wouldn't be surprised about Stark and Rogers being engaged here.

Ana Jr.: Considering my Pepper Potts was not surprised by Mr. Stark and Capt. Rogers's relationship, I doubt the other Pepper Potts would be surprised.

D Fitzsimmons: Actually, she goes by Potts Stark now. They changed their last name for Morgan. They wanted to switch to Carbonell, but the board wouldn't have it.

D Fitzsimmons: According to Robin, it went exactly the way it should've gone. Which was Stark staying with Morgan and Pepper granting me a leave of absence to work on the project. Of course, that wasn't enough, and they ended up recruiting Dr. Banner to help. Dr. Banner ended up turning Scott into a baby because he didn't want to listen to me when I said that we needed some sort of time GPS. So, what if he has seven PhDs. Fuck that. That means nothing where I came from.

Ana Jr.: So, what happened next?

D Fitzsimmons: After that screwup, I came across Dr. Stark's notes on time travel.

Ana Junior: Did this surprise you?

D Fitzsimmons: No, because I mysteriously find notes on projects that I am working on from Stark all the time. Although, in this case, I might've gone looking for them on his personal server. I wouldn't have been able to get in if he didn't want me to read them.

Ana Jr.: Your hypothesis is correct. You would only be allowed to access the files that Stark would want you to see. Although your Friday may have different protocols than I do. Dr. Stark Rogers is not my father, but rather my grandfather, although I do call Afia my big sister. I was built by Leo and the princess after they gave Afia her body.

D Fitzsimmons: When this report is over, I really want to know about the LMD thing. I heard about them, but I've never seen one.

Ana Jr.: Until last night anyway. Did you use the files found on the Stark server to create your time GPS?

D Fitzsimmons: Yes. I was working on that when Nana and Romanoff went off to Japan to convince Barton to be the new guinea pig. Scott was out after getting turned into a baby.

Ana Jr.: That seems reasonable.

D Fitzsimmons: The plan was for him to go back to his farmhouse and grab something tangible. At the last minute, Nana decided I was going as well. She found a way to stretch out the Pym particles based on the work she was doing with the monolith before.

Ana Jr.: Since you are now speaking with me in the year 2018, the experiment was obviously successful

D Fitzsimmons: Except this is not our 2018. Instead of being at the farmhouse with Clint, I ended up in the house of some strange wizard meeting my grandfather and his boyfriend. I also got to meet Thor before he started drinking as much as my Nana. Now I understand why people used to say he was so hot.

D Fitzsimmons: According to the wizard, I didn't go 5 1/2 years into my past. The past that I landed in is another timeline created by Bobo getting thrown back in time and making a dam. Which again shouldn't surprise me because I thought I was going to get blown up by the monolith landing here.

Ana Jr.: You currently have three unread text messages from your grandmother on your cell phone.

D FitzSimmons: I've been afraid to look.

Ana Jr.: The three messages contain instructions. Instead of bringing back something tangible, your Nana would like you to bring back Fitz since she sent you directly to his location. She would get you when you had him.

D Fitzsimmons: Which was apparently a wizard's house? I am now stuck here. I think it was the wizard's fault.

D Fitzsimmons: Is this what you need? I would really like to get lunch. I barely got to eat breakfast because not depressed Simmons wanted to give me a tour of the Lighthouse. The Wakanda embassy is different, but I did grow up here. So it was a waste of three hours of my time.

D Fitzsimmons: She didn't even ask me any questions about the other timeline, which seems like a waste. You got more information out of me.

Ana Jr.: This is sufficient for now. I will take your words and compose an actual report for Acting Dir. Stark.

D Fitzsimmons: Good. Now please point me to food that isn't survival pellets or protein bars.

Ana Jr.: The cafeteria where you were at this morning is an option. You should be warned that your grandparents are back at the cafeteria currently talking about you. Simmons actually likes you, and so does Hunter.

D Fitzsimmons: At least I won over the step-grandparent. Okay, where can I get food where I can avoid my family? I don't have the energy.

Ana Jr.: Afia is currently having a research session with her friends on the Wakanda embassy levels. They have New York bagels and pizza. Along with access to the embassy kitchens.

D Fitzsimmons: I think I'll go hang out with Stark's kid and her friends. Anything is better than spending more time with the grandparents of this timeline. Happy, well-adjusted Nana scares me.

Ana Jr.: That is an admirable choice.

To be continued

I thought about reclassifying this as a text message conversation, but I see it as Ana just trying to help Deke write his report by conducting an interview.

For those of you who did not watch season five of Agents of Shield, the Blues is a nickname for the Kree that enslaved people at the Lighthouse.

I did add one little thing to this chapter after watching AOS season seven. See if you can find it.


	22. C18: Why Did You Send That to My Aunt?

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fabulous. A little programming notes: because of a break in proofreading, I am switching to a once every three-week updating schedule for the foreseeable future. At least until more chapters are banked. However, I am accepting volunteers for more proofreaders. Currently, I have just Ursula. Who is fabulous but I write a lot. I've actually already moved two of my stories to AI proofreading only.

As a reminder, you're not going to see every text message going on between our protagonists, only the important ones. If you saw every message, the story will end up a good 1000+ chapters. I know some of you would be perfectly okay with that, but that's a lot of chapters to dictate. Let's be honest; a lot of them would probably be Avenger dinner orders. It takes a lot of takeout to feed the multiple Avengers squads.

I kept going back and forth on if this chapter should be classified as an in-person conversation or a text message chapter because it's a hybrid. However, since I want to keep in-person conversation chapters to a minimum, I decided to classify this as a text message conversation. Although it is the longest chapter in the story so far. It's necessary because it's a crucial chapter.

Number one May is May Parker Riley. Incidentally, Melinda May is not May number two in Peter's address book but just Agent May. Really he has no imagination. Obviously, P Parker is Peter. This is his personal cell phone, after all, not the Avenger line. Also, because this isn't the Avenger line, the names of the under 18 are not being redacted. Although if a mention of their superpowers pops up, that would be edited. Tony and the princes are trying not to be Big Brother. Sometimes they overstepped their boundaries anyway.

Conversation 18: Why Did You Send That to My Aunt?

* * *

Number one May: When Tony asked me if I could take care of Miles for the weekend, he said that you would all be doing science stuff at the Lighthouse. However, I just saw him giving a press conference with the President from the rose garden officially pardoning Capt. America.

P Parker: We were, but because the Mumbai agreement was ratified yesterday, the president called him in. I think they wanted to get the pardon out of the way, so they could get to wedding planning. Although I don't believe they are doing the wedding on April 28 anymore.

P Parker: Afia didn't even know until this morning. Tony didn't even know. Other May dragged him out of bed at like 4 AM.

Number one May: Are there any adults there with you? Olivia is coming over to do a home date since we have Miles, but I don't mind coming up to the Lighthouse.

P Parker: There are two adults in the room with me right now. We are fine, May.

Number one May: Despite being over 18 now, I don't count Flash as an adult. He has another year of high school. Especially because Afia sent me a picture of you in bed together shirtless this morning.

P Parker: It wasn't like that. The room was too hot, and we were just sleeping. Flash broke up with his boyfriend yesterday because he's a prick. The Princess is here as well as Fitzsimmons and FitzHunter. Along with a bunch of other agents and Wakanda security force members. I promise we are adequately supervised.

Number one May: Good.

Number one May: I mean the breakup with the boyfriend. Something was wrong about that guy. As well as there being adults there.

P Parker: He cheated on Flash, so definitely something wrong there. Idiot.

Number one May: Don't get me wrong, I like Flash now that he's aware of the pulling pigtail syndrome, but he might be in a vulnerable place after what happened.

P Parker: I know that. Nothing happened last night.

Number one May: But could it eventually?

P Parker: I'm working on a research project with the Princess, so I need to go.

Number one May: Just promise me you'll use condoms and lots of lube. And he will have to come over for dinner.

Number one May: Michelle should be there too. Have you three negotiated yet?

XXXX

Peter is 99% sure that if he was not Spider-Man, he would've dropped his phone. Although his mortified look led to Flash and MJ looking over his shoulder to see what he was reading.

"That was private." He admonished both.

"You are freaking out again. The last time you freaked out during this research exercise, you discovered that your aunt was dusted in the other timeline. I had to check." MJ told him from his left.

"Be glad you have a parent that cares if you're using protection. I could text her back and tell her that I promise to follow her rules. Although if we do dinner with your aunt, we should bring groceries and cook ourselves for her." Flash joked.

"Or bring takeout. I adore your aunt, but she can't cook at all," MJ added. The whole exchange made Peter even more mortified. They were not freaked out at all about his mom… Aunt mentioning condom usage. Also, what did she mean by "negotiationed"? What were they supposed to be negotiating?

"Of course, I was mortified. Other Aunt May was dating Happy at the time of her dusting instead of Olivia, and I thought Olivia was strange. You know the guy that hates me. Also, don't even think about texting her back." That would just be even more mortifying for reasons he's not ready to examine just yet.

"Happy doesn't hate you," Afia tells him. "He just gets a little jealous of anybody else that has dad's attention. He was dad's second friend ever, so he has trouble playing with others. He is my dad's Ned."

"You may be right," Peter said, remembering all the fights between Flash and Ned. There's some jealousy going on. He is still trying to figure out how to explain to Ned that they are in distinct categories.

"What did May say that has you blushing so much?" Afia asked. Flash tried to answer, but Peter quickly placed his hand over Flash's mouth. Peter was not going to think about the fact that his entire body started to tingle at the touch of his lips against his fingers. He wasn't going to think about it at all because then Flash licked his hand. That caused him to let go.

"You two are so hopeless. Flirt later." MJ said, grinning at the two from his other side. "Afia, has your dad got back to you about letting me access Daisy's suit cam and rapid Avenger reports? I can't wait to let Daisy know that her suit records everything, despite having to do written reports."

"She knows. Dad just got back to me probably because he is no longer with the President getting his boyfriend pardoned. He says that he'll let you watch the footage of Daisy's suit cam as well as read her rapid reports when he returns." Afia told the group as Peter tried to stop blushing. It wasn't helping that MJ was now leaning into him closer. Then there was also the fact that Flash was half sitting on top of him. It was the only way the three of them could sit on the loveseat together. Because of course, the Princess' suite had two loveseats instead of any regular size couches.

"And when exactly will your dad get back from DC?" There was a hint of worry in MJ's voice that just made Peter place an arm around her. He knew she was scared.

"Not tonight because they have a few interviews tonight. They will do the talk show circuit in the morning since they're already in DC. Selling the Avengers again is not an easy task, and it might be necessary with what's to come." Afia explained.

"So, tomorrow evening?" MJ asked.

"Probably." At those words, Flash reached across Peter to squeeze MJ's hand. Peter ignores how close they are to him or tries to. The spider senses are working on overload, picking up their increased heartbeat and the smell of the perfume that MJ's wearing and Flash's cologne. His body feels on edge.

"On the bright side, dad has convinced your mom to let you take a personal day Monday. He says he's calling May next." At her words, Peter looks at the text message that just popped up on his phone.

XXXX

Number one May: Okay, now I really want to know what is happening. Tony asked if it's okay if you stay home from school Monday. He also wants to send Miles and me to his secluded island until at least mid-May. Is this an Avenger thing? Are aliens invading again?

P Parker: Maybe you should talk to Dr. Stark-Rogers or use the other channel that we created on your phone.

XXXXX

"What about school?" MJ asked because, of course, MJ asked.

"Our teachers are being told will be out for a SI intern project, but there's a 50% chance dad told our principal the truth. He knows that Laura and I are ATCU." Afia explained.

"Well, he would have to with Laura missing," Flash told the group. "Stark can't cover that up."

"According to Twitter, the general died in a car accident last night. So yes, he could," MJ added.

"But our principal is former Shield and the grandson of a Howling Commando. Lying won't work." Afia pointed out, and her cousin nodded behind her in agreement.

"Point. I'm so glad I don't have Olivia's class Monday. I feel like I'm starting to get a headache." Peter said just as he looked at his phone again.

XXXX

Number one May: Laura is missing? Coulson got kidnapped by [redacted]. I never trusted the general—that poor Ruby.

Number one May: Why didn't you tell me any of this? You know, I worry.

XXXXX

"You still get headaches?" Flash asked, giving him a sympathetic look. Obviously, he read the last message.

"Not for a long time until today," Peter answered before typing his response to his aunt.

XXXX

P Parker: I know you worry.

P Parker: I'm sorry I didn't tell you what was happening. I wasn't sure what I could say, and I figured Tony would brief you. I assumed this was one of those things I should leave for the adults.

XXXX

"I have a headache from reading these reports. I know stuff is missing. We only have a readout from someone named Nebula regarding what happened to Peter Prime." Afia told the group.

"Which was bad enough," Peter mumbled under his breath, which resulted in both Flash and MJ putting an arm around him. Everybody was unsettled about that. All of them ended up dust in the other timeline — even Ned. Of his wider circle of school friends, only Cindy Moon and Cecily O'Reilly survived the decimation. (Liz survived too, but she is more Flash's friend because she's never going to forgive him for his part in her dad getting arrested.) Although in the other timeline, Cecily was still going by Seymour at the time of the decimation. Maybe it took longer for her to come out as transgender in the other timeline.

"I can understand why your father wouldn't want to write about me dying in his arms. I don't think I want to read an account of me dying in his arms." Peter tells the group, trying not to think about the other timeline, but it was hard.

"I completely agree," MJ said from beside him, almost sounding like she was near tears. "It was bad enough reading about my cousin being dusted in Wakanda." He felt her shiver. It was apparent she wasn't okay. None of them were.

"Although now we know that Robin's drawings were a version of one future," Shuri said from across.

"Hopefully, not ours," Flash mumbled from beside him.

"Which is why we're reading these reports trying to figure out where things went wrong," MJ spoke.

"I think the biggest thing was Shield being in pieces and The Avengers not being on speaking terms. We've already fixed that. We actually have almost triple the number of Avengers along with the Puerto Rico squad." Afia told everyone.

"This Thanos guy that's coming literally ripped Yo Yo's arms off, and she bled to death during the chaos in Mack's arms before he was dusted. Thanos killed Loki. The guy responsible for the chaos that was New York and this purple ass hole just broke his neck. How are we going to win against this?" Peter could hear the worry in Flash's voice as he spoke. He responded by pulling closer to him. They all needed the contact right now.

"By not doing what they did." The Princess answered matter-of-factly.

"We're ahead of where they were right now. We already managed to get the stone out of Vision's head." Afia told them.

"So, at least here I won't be trying to do that during the middle of a battle," Shuri added.

"Wait, you guys already did that?" MJ asked, surprised.

"I guess we never told you guys what we did last summer in Wakanda?" Afia asked the group. They all shook their head no.

"It's safe in a pocket dimension. So instead of being ripped out of Vision's head in front of Wanda after she's forced to destroy the stone, we can just keep it secure in a top-secret location. I don't even know where my cousin stashed it." Afia explained.

"Which is for your own safety because if you knew, Thanos would stop at nothing to get that information from you." The Princess answered solemnly.

"Why didn't you just destroy the Infinity stone?" Flash asked. "If it's gone, the purple ass hole can't use it to wipe us all out. We know that Wanda can destroy it. She did so in the other timeline before the purple one reversed it."

"Robin told us not to," Afia answered.

.

"So, you do everything a six-year-old tells you to do?" MJ asked.

"A six-year-old that can see the pathways of the future." The Princess added.

"Although it's kind of Star Wars-ish. The future is always in motion." Afia told the group.

"Or at the whim of the writer," MJ mumbled under breath.

"It's more like the director." Flash corrected before Ana interrupted.

"You should know that Agent FitzSimmons is currently in the elevator asking for access to this floor." The AI told the group.

"You know they're always allowed in here." The Princess answered, and at that, Ana opened the elevator. Although instead of seeing Fitz or Simmons exit the elevator, Peter saw their alternate timeline guest.

"You are not the Agent Fitzsimons I was expecting." The Princess spoke aloud.

"So, this is where all the cool people are." The man remarked.

"Is there something that you need?" Afia asked.

"Ana said this is where I could find food and not have to interact with my grandparents or step-grandparent. This morning was weird enough. Simmons invited me to their anniversary party after the Lighthouse tour. I can't deal with that again right now." Everyone looked at him very strangely.

"Yes, I'm older than my grandparents. Time travel is weird, especially when you do it again and get trapped in a different alternate timeline." The visitor told them.

"Extremely weird, Agent Fitzsimmons. You can help yourself to the kitchen down here." Shuri pointed to a room down the hall.

"I can completely understand wanting to avoid problematic family members," Flash mumbled under his breath as Deke went to grab some leftover pizza from the kitchen. There was plenty left because no one really felt like eating as they started to study what happened in the other timeline.

"Or perspective step-parents. My aunt is currently dating my professor right now, which is weird." He can't explain it, but Olivia makes his body tingle and not in a safe way like Flash and MJ. He has no idea why.

"I can't believe your aunt is dating Professor Octavius," MJ added.

"Neither can I. I think this might be her rebound. God, I hope so." Honestly, he would've preferred Happy even though it kind of freaked him out a little bit. Happy never made his whole-body tingle.

"See, I knew there would be people down here that would understand." The man said, coming back in with chips, two slices of cold pizza, and a soda. Apparently, he heard their conversation from the kitchen. "Also, stop with the agent stuff. Just call me Deke. I'm not actually an agent. I am a consultant from Stark Industries."

"And she is the heir apparent of Stark Industries, so I think we're good," Flash answered flippantly, pointing to Afia. "Does that kinda make you his boss or him, my boss?"

"Maybe not in this timeline, and I'm just one of the heirs. Peter is also an SI heir along with the Fitz Brothers. I'm sure Flash has a trust fund with a lot of SI stock in it. Also, I think Pepper is grooming him for something big at the company. She's already planning to take him to look at various business schools." Afia joked. Although not really because Peter knew he was an actual heir apparent to Stark industries. He still couldn't believe that.

"As long as I stay sober, it matures when I turn 25," Flash tells the group.

"How long have you been sober?" Deke asked, curious.

"10 months. We are immensely proud." MJ said as she squeezed Flash's hand again. Peter is just going to ignore the fact that his cheeks are getting red again with the additional contact. You think the spider bite would give him the power to keep that from happening.

"That's good. What program did you use? AA? Or did you go to a rehab center? Do you have a sponsor?" Deke asked, and Flash just kind of sputtered for a moment, not sure how to respond.

"It's probably rude to ask those questions. However, I've been trying to find a program for my Nana. She hasn't been the same since my Grandpa Bobo died. Although he didn't really die. He was just bounced back to the past, created a new timeline, and is now sleeping with Hunter. Because of course, the guy couldn't just be a twig in the stream."

"That must be hard on you," Afia said sympathetically.

"Very hard, and it's worse now seeing the happy version of her," Deke told the group. "I'm not even mad at Bobo because if you find yourself in a strange time, you survive by whatever means necessary. I just don't need to see that survival right now."

"Which is why you are coming down here for food," MJ suggested just as Peter's phone beeped again with another message from May.

XXXX

Number one May: Since I now know some of what's going on, I'm going with Miles and the Khans to the Malta house for a while. The Barton children may join us if Tony can work it out with their dad. I'm happy I took the job at the Stark foundation now so I can disappear for a month without having to clear it with the boss.

Number one May: Tony and Steve are in charge. Do what they say. Stay safe.

Peter P: We will.

Number one May: Don't forget to use protection. I don't need grandbabies yet, and nobody wants chlamydia. Trust me.

XXXX

Of course, when Peter looked up from his phone, everybody, especially Deke, was staring at him.

"Sorry, my aunt texted, and I had to respond. Tony convinced her to relocate to the Malta compound for a while."

"Which is good because Thanos and his factions managed to destroy several blocks anywhere near an Avenger in the other timeline," MJ remarked, looking up from her Stark pad.

"I totally understand wanting to text your family. I wish I could talk to my Nana right now. I'm just so worried about her. She probably went right to the wine when I disappeared. It's her answer for everything."

"What if you could?" Shuri asked.

"What?" Deke looked at her, puzzled as he spoke.

"I've been studying how Friday 2023 managed to transmit all the data to us, along with your research. Although I think we would need the Pym particles that we don't have to send you back, I think we can send a message without them." The Princess explained.

"So, I'll be able to check up on my Nana?" Deke asked, hopeful.

"Yes, but I need time to finish working on it." Shuri cautioned.

"I could help. I am actually the chief creative officer." Deke told the group.

"I thought it was Head of R&D?" MJ asked for clarification.

"It changes periodically depending on what mood Tony is in. HR hates it." Deke remarks.

"He's probably doing it just to mess with them. Some things are universal," Afia mumbled under breath.

"That would be useful because I have some questions about your notes. However, there are some other things we need clarification on." Shuri said before turning things over to Afia.

"We know in your timeline that Thanos shows up in a month and kicks everybody's ass. We don't want that to happen, so we're trying to figure out what went wrong, and it feels like we're still missing some things." Afia explained. 

"I thought you said Friday's sent you everything?" Deke asked, puzzled.

"Yes, but we don't understand why the reports about what happened in Asgard are from someone named the Valkyrie and Bruce Banner of all people. What was he doing in Asgard? I don't know because I'm not even allowed to look at the reports. Why isn't there anything from Thor?" MJ asked. He knew MJ was most concerned with what happened in Asgard because her cousin was now involved.

"Nobody wants to talk about their sister killing most of their people and then their brother subsequently getting his neck snapped by Thanos not that long after that."

"What the hell happened in the other timeline?" Flash asked as he turned his attention to MJ. She was not okay at all.

"A lot," Deke answered.

"We'll figure out how to do things differently here." He whispered to MJ. Flash got up from the couch, motioning for Peter to scoot over. MJ followed so that Flash could sit beside her on the other side so he could wrap an arm around her.

"Why is she so upset?"

"Her cousin Daisy is with Thor and Loki right now. So, we are concerned." The Princess explained.

"I didn't know Daisy had other family outside of her dad."

"We didn't either until about a year ago. I just want to know what's going on with my cousin. Can you help with that?" MJ asked.

"Anything for a Daisy." Deke readily agreed to help.

To be continued

* * *

Original A/N written April 2022: In Spider-Man Homecoming, Seymour O'Reilly is played by Josie Totah before she publicly identified as transgender. I decided to write this into my story. So, by this point in my story, Seymour is now Cecily O'Reilly. In the comic books, O'Reilly is part of Flash's group. Here she is another ally of Flash and one of the few that knows the truth about him.

Also, for those of you not familiar with Agents of Shield, Deke had a ridiculous crush on Daisy in season five. Even though it's been five years, there's still some feelings there and a lot of regrets.

Updated A/N: The actions Deke takes in season seven of AOS really validated the choices I made for him in this story. In this story and in cannon, he becomes the caretaker of a depressed and mourning alcoholic. When we get to the chapters written post-AOS, I'll explain more about what I'll be doing with season seven AOS elements.


	23. C19: Grilled Cheese for the Tony Soul

Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last conversation. You're so wonderful. You always keep me happy and writing. I adore seeing your comments. You make me sit down and focus. I absolutely adore you all.

Also, my 4 millionth word is somewhere in this chapter, per fanfiction dot net. (Probably a good 300,000 words are A/Ns and story rewrites, but I'm still counting it.) I've been writing fanfic since 2009. When I started, I didn't think I would ever get to this point where I've actually penned 4 million words worth of stories. I was terrified of writing publicly because of my disability. I thought I would be ridiculed for typos that I couldn't always catch. Your support over the years has kept me going through near-fatal car accidents, deaths in the family, and now a pandemic. I appreciate all of you being here with me for the ride.

Welcome back to the "bad" timeline.

I was initially planning for this to be an in-person conversation between Tony and Steve. However, during the rewrite process, I realize they're not quite there yet. Therefore, I switched it to text messages. They're still ridiculously awkward in person around each other and usually stress eat to break the tension. Although they do like to subconsciously touch each other a lot. Don't you just want to hug them until they get a clue? Or maybe a slap?

* * *

Conversation 19: Grilled Cheese for the Tony Potts Soul

Morgan's dad: Are you doing anything right now?

Steve: I'm just making lunch. Which you should join us for. You can't work on an empty stomach; you must leave Bruce's lab sometime. You've been there since you've got here. Have you even slept?

Morgan's dad: Yes, there is a couch here, and Laura brought me a granola bar yesterday. I think this is Simmons's lab. Which is evident from the minibar that I'm asking you to help me get rid of. I think this is phase 1 of the intervention that Laura from the "good" timeline is planning to do. Apparently, we all need lots of intervention.

Steve: It could be Deke's bar. If it's mostly Zima, it's his. He does work here a lot. That's all he'll drink because Simmons won't touch it.

Morgan's dad: I know and no. Although, I understand why he prefers to work here as opposed to the SI lab space. Which is entirely understandable. Also, I doubt the Zima thing is true. If she's this far gone, you need to worry about the hand sanitizer. I would know.

Steve: Point. The food will be done cooking in 20 minutes. You can eat a sandwich, as I take care of the alcohol. I can move it up to the bar in the main living area.

Morgan's dad: Or lock it in one of the safes. I need Simmons with just enough alcohol in her system to prevent withdrawal, so she can help.

Morgan's dad: Also, you don't have to bring me food. I do know how to cook now. I don't live on protein bars and smoothies alone anymore. The nonalcoholic kind, I'm not the mom from Hey Arnold.

Steve: Kamala and Robin love that show. Robin told me lots of grilled cheese, and tomato soup is usually involved at your house for lunch. Which incidentally is what I'm making.

Morgan's dad: Grilled cheese on homemade bread, and the tomato soup is fresh from scratch. I grow our tomatoes myself. I have become quite the culinary mine.

Steve: I know. Robin told me. She's usually more talkative after coming back from the cabin. It's good for her. I'm a little worried her only friend, outside of her sister, is almost 8 years younger than her, but it's been good.

Morgan's dad: I'm glad Morgan has a friend even if she is nearly 8 years older than her. She's almost like a big sister. This is good because, as you probably know, being an only child is lonely.

Steve: Being raised an only child is difficult. It would've been a lot worse for me if I didn't have Bucky.

Morgan's dad: That reminds me to let you know that Pepper had Hunter bring the kids to the city to stay with her at the penthouse. We thought it was best since we don't know precisely how long it will take me to decipher Simmons's notes to figure out what the fuck she did. Are you okay with that? I should've asked you that last night, but I got in the zone.

Steve: That makes sense. It's fine. I trust Pepper. Have you made any progress at all?

Morgan's dad: I already know how to get back to the past. Deke was copying my theories, and that's what he used to build the time watch. It should've taken him to our past, not other Laura's present.

Steve: Yet, somehow, it did?

Morgan's dad: From what I can make out of her notes, the monolith particles were somehow involved like you originally theorized. That is something I know nothing about because Simmons was doing all the research on that. Unfortunately, her notes are very incoherent—lots of stuff about doctors, butterflies, and somebody named Flint. Who is Flint?

Steve: Flint was the name of the Inhuman that put the White monolith back together in the alternate 2091 that allowed everybody to come back.

Morgan's dad: [Exasperated emoji]

Steve: I can understand how that can be difficult.

Morgan's dad: Difficult is getting your 4-year-old to fall asleep when her best friend stays over. This feels impossible.

Steve: I thought you didn't believe in the impossible?

Morgan's dad: That was before I saw half the world disappear. I'm a bit more grounded now. I really want to know what she did.

Steve: Have you tried talking to Clint? Maybe he knows something. I know he hasn't left the compound yet.

Morgan's dad: Widow already tried and got nothing. Although they did eat half of Hunter's cookies. I could really use one of those cookies right now.

Steve: You can't have your nanny come up here to bring us more cookies.

Morgan's dad: It's on the way back from Pepper's.

Steve: No. Also, shouldn't he stay with Pepper? That way, it's not two against one.

Morgan's dad: You're no fun at all. I hate it when you are logical.

Steve: I'll make you some brownies later.

Morgan's dad: Now you're talking. Your brownies are better than hunters cookies but don't tell him that.

Steve: Never. Do you think that maybe Clint would tell Laura?

Morgan's dad: Possibly. On the one hand, she's incredibly good at getting you to talk about things that you may not otherwise talk about.

Steve: This is true.

Morgan's dad: On the other hand, Clint is avoiding her, and it's tough to talk to somebody who is actively avoiding you. Although Laura said she would try.

Steve: This is true.

Morgan's dad: So why have you been avoiding me for the last five years?

Steve: You're very blunt sometimes. It's unnerving.

Morgan's dad: Sometimes, you need to be. It's a skill I got from the business world. Still, I would like for you to answer the question.

Steve: I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of shame and guilt. I wasn't there when you needed me, and we lost. If I just swallowed my pride earlier, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

Morgan's dad: You know I'm glad that you're at least willing to say that much. I shouldn't have said what I said to you when I got back. I was wrong. I was just lashing out, and I'm sorry.

Steve: No, you were right. It was the wrong time to ask you about what happened. You weren't well, and you lost someone you really cared about. I'm the one that needs to be sorry, and I am.

Morgan's dad: It's okay. It was the wrong time, but I understand why you were so frantic. Although, I really wasn't in the mood for you to go on another suicide mission.

Steve: I realize that too. Again, I'm sorry.

Morgan's dad: Two apologies back to back. I'm going to have Friday frame this.

Steve: So, what are we going to do?

Morgan's dad: Get Laura back home. I don't think any of us intended for this to become a time kidnapping.

Morgan's dad: Except for apparently Simmons.

Steve: True. After that?

Morgan's dad: You tell me. We will have time travel perfected. Your time heist can continue as planned. Although, please no more time kidnappings. Laura's lovely, but still no.

Steve: I don't know. We don't exactly have a lot of the Pym particles. Deke tried to reverse engineer the particles, but I'm not sure how far he got.

Morgan's dad: That might be another reason why he is now in an alternate timeline 2018 instead of our 2018.

Steve: Possibly.

Morgan's dad: Unfortunately, I can't look at his notes because Friday won't let me.

Steve: Have you asked your AI why you can't have access?

Morgan's dad: I'm afraid to ask too many questions when Deke is involved. Plausible deniability is always best with him.

Steve: I think it's time for you to ask anyway.

Morgan's dad: You may be right. Hey princess, why can't I access the Deke files?

Friday: Unfortunately, Sir, I cannot give you access because I do not have access to those files at this time.

Morgan's dad: You have access to all Stark employees' work, and Deke is a Stark employee.

Friday: I no longer have access to that information because it was transferred to Ana Jr. I purposely chose not to make a backup copy.

Steve: Who is Ana Jr.?

Friday: Ana Jr. is the name of the AI in charge of the Avengers and ATCU data networks.

Steve: I thought Friday oversees the Avenger network?

Morgan's dad: Not our network, but she oversees Laura's network. In what year is this Ana situated in?

Friday: 2018

Morgan's dad: I'm assuming the other 2018?

Friday: Yes. I sent this information to her so that she could help those Avengers. In exchange, she provided me with a list of everything her Avengers are doing to mitigate Thanos. They managed to remove the Mind Stone from Vision's head in summer of 2017. It is currently being kept in an undisclosed location.

Steve: They were definitely one step ahead of us. I wonder why they didn't destroy it?

Morgan's dad: That's good for us, though. When we dropped Laura back, do you think the other Avengers will let us borrow it?

Steve: Tony, if we remove the mind stone from Laura's timeline, does that mean that Thanos 2018 cannot complete the gauntlet? Therefore, he won't wipe out half of the universe there.

Morgan's dad: I fucking love you. Sometimes, you are a genius. Why didn't I think of that?

Morgan's dad: That's precisely what that means. I think we can do this together.

Steve: We always do better when we are together.

Morgan's dad: Ain't that the truth. Thankfully for us, the other Avengers are better at cooperation. Laura says it's the group therapy.

Steve: I'm coming over to you so we can have grilled cheese and strategize.

Morgan's dad: Perfect. I think we might be able to do this.

To be continued…

* * *

Look, strategy, and fluff. That needs to be a tag. See progress. Tony and Steve are better when they work together. Although the denial continues. Now taking bets on when they will actually get a clue.


	24. Conversation 20: Laura and Tony bonding

Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You're so lovely. We are still in the "bad choices were made" timeline.

I didn't mean to make this a Laura and Tony Potts's friendship story, but it just kind of happened. They both need a friend right now.

* * *

Conversation 20: Laura and Tony bonding

Tony Potts: So good news, I had lunch with Capt. Tight Pants. It did not end in bloodshed or one of us running out of the room crying.

Counselor Laura: I consider that excellent progress.

Tony Potts: I also was not tempted to break into the lab liquor supply that Steve locked up.

Counselor Laura: Also, for the best. Have you made any progress with the Simmons notes?

Tony Potts: No. Also, baby girl Friday decided to send everything to your 2018. Apparently, Steve's baby girl Robin told her to because, of course, Robin is calling the shots right now.

Counselor Laura: That makes sense. And let me guess, she didn't make a copy?

Tony Potts: Robin told her not to.

Counselor Laura: Not surprised.

Tony Potts: Although Capt. Tight Pants did have a brilliant idea. When we miraculously manage to drop you off, we also pick up the stone that your team already managed to get out _of Vision's_ head.

Counselor Laura: Which will give you guys a head start on putting the gauntlet back together again.

Tony Potts: Better, the purple one can't put his magical glove together if it's here.

Counselor Laura: Which means he can't wipe out half of the universe.

Tony Potts: He can still fuck things up being his charming self, but it's harder without the gauntlet. Although even one stone by itself can be dangerous.

Counselor Laura: Clint told me. He didn't enjoy getting mind fucked by one of the stones.

Tony Potts: After experiencing the same thing from Wanda, I get it.

Counselor Laura: You don't see her as your daughter-in-law in this timeline, do you?

Tony Potts: Considering what happened to Vision here, it's probably better for my mental health not to. She was also a victim of the decimation.

Counselor Laura: Shit. So much was lost.

Tony Potts: That's not going to happen to you because we are going to play keep away with the stones. The fewer he has, the easier it will be for your Avengers to take care of him.

Counselor Laura: As soon as you figure out how to send me back. Will I even get back in time to make a difference? It's already been a week.

Tony Potts: That doesn't matter. We could just plop you back in your own timeline seconds after you disappeared.

Counselor Laura: So, we have all the time in the universe to plan this, right?

Tony Potts: Exactly. We can even get some reinforcements. Nebula and Rocket may come to join us. Also, if things work with Simmons, maybe you can go to Norway for an intervention. Storm Breaker would be good to have.

Counselor Laura: Why would I be needed for an intervention in Norway?

Tony Potts: So, have you talked to you're not a husband yet? The sooner we get any information he has, the sooner we can begin Operation: Infinite Keep Away.

Counselor Laura: Congratulations, your avoidance is just as apparent as Dr. Tony Stark Rogers.

Tony Potts: I try.

Counselor Laura: Unfortunately, every day I've been here since Clint found out that I'm Laura from alternate 2018, he's been avoiding me. I think Friday has been helping him.

Friday: I have not been helping your not-a-husband avoid you.

Counselor Laura: I don't believe you. If you're anything like my Friday, you're good at meddling in interpersonal relationships. It hasn't got better since she became an LMD. I'm sure she's currently conspiring to get Flash, MJ, and Peter in a poly relationship.

Tony Potts: Flash and Peter? What the actual fuck!

Tony Potts: I thought you were from the "good" timeline, but now I'm wondering.

Counselor Laura: It turns out Flash's previous behavior was a combination of pulling pigtail syndrome and internalized homophobia.

Tony Potts: That's never a good combination. Do you know about Tiberius?

Counselor Laura: The asshole responsible for the nonconsensual sex tape? Please tell me he was one of the people that were dusted.

Tony Potts: No such luck.

Counselor Laura: It's never the assholes. Afia, or rather Friday as an LMD teenager, helped Flash work through his issues.

Tony Potts: Which is good. Did I end up being Flash's foster parent because he got kicked out for being gay?

Counselor Laura: Something like that. If we successfully bring him back here, you need to get him out of that house. He can't stay there. It's toxic for him. Unfortunately, Flash takes out his issues on other people. Even though he's 18 now, he might feel stuck there coming back from this.

Tony Potts: Okay, that I understand, at least. Your world scares me.

Counselor Laura: Your world scares me.

Tony Potts: Now I'm going to push you into the world and tell you to text message you're not a husband.

Counselor Laura: I'm not sure how to start that conversation.

Tony Potts: Invite him to the all-hands meeting we're doing tomorrow. Steve said he will make brownies, the turtle type.

Counselor Laura: We're doing an all-hands meeting? The last one ended with Simmons throwing up on my shoes.

Tony Potts: We kind of need to. We need to come up with a map of where all the other stones are when we drop you home. It will be fine. We have already hidden most of the liquor.

Counselor Laura: That could make things worse. Withdrawal sucks.

Tony Potts: Especially if you are me and end up doing it during near-death experiences.

Counselor Laura: You must want to change. I don't think Simmons is ready yet.

Tony Potts: You're right, but maybe if this works and we bring back frozen Fitz, she will feel like she has a reason to try. At a minimum, we should get back her grandson.

Counselor Laura: That still confuses me greatly. You're right, I'll go invite Clint to the meeting. We are ordering pizza. That should entice him if the brownies are not enough.

Tony Potts: See, you're making progress already.

To be continued…


	25. C 21: Tony S-R, overprotected dad

Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last conversation. All of you are so wonderful. Welcome back to the "good" timeline.

A/N Summer 2020: Initially, I was going to have three "bad" timeline conversations in a row, but then new episodes of Agents of Shield started, and I had to go back and do some Leo Fitz stuff due to his absence in the first two episodes. By the time you see this conversation, the show will be over, and I will be crying. Yes, I wrote the chapter after the first two episodes in early June. Yes, these chapters are prepared months in advance of when they come out. I used to write one section of each story and rotate around. Now I usually write a block of anywhere from 4 to 12 chapters before moving onto another one of my stories. I find this method keeps the creative juices going better.

Updated A/N Winter 2020: Now I write this, and we are only a couple of weeks away from Wandavision. I think this is going to be my last chapter before the show starts. Yes, I did cry when AOS ended, but they were happy tears. So I actually have up to chapter 32 drafted. It's just a question of proofreading. I could use additional betas. I currently only have one beta and Grammarly.

We are on Avenger channels in this conversation. I debated whether this conversation could happen on personal channels, but this does become a business conversation because the purple one is coming. Leo Fitz of the prime timeline, a.k.a. James Leopold, is Chief Monkey Lover. He is also head of the UN Avengers. Tony gets Chief Mechanic now since he is the head of the ATCU. Mack's call name might have some variant of mechanic in there as well. He is the West Coast division head at the moment. They are terribly busy on the West Coast right now. This might be a good time for you to check out Ant-man and the Wasp for background purposes.

* * *

**Conversation 21: Tony Stark-Rogers, overprotected dad**

Chief Mechanic: According to Ana, you are still working through the files that came over with the grandkid. I would ask how that's going, but probably badly.

Chief Mechanic: This means that you're up to check up on why the kids are still in the labs at 2 AM. Ana just had to wake me up after a beautiful night of catching up with my fiancé because it's 2 AM, and my child hasn't even attempted a sleep cycle yet.

Chief Monkey Lover: That's an Ana job.

Chief Monkey Lover: Is there a reason why I can't access anything regarding Simmons? Along with Deke's report from yesterday. Ana told me he wrote one.

Chief Mechanic: Ana doesn't have access to the cameras in lab six because the Princess is blocking her. Which has me worried. I know all the kids are down there, including Flash and MJ. Also, your grandkid is there. Earlier, Ana said they bonded over dysfunctional families.

Chief Monkey Lover: Please do not refer to him as my grandchild.

Chief Mechanic: DNA test don't lie.

Chief Monkey Lover: Then, at worst, he's my great-nephew. I am with Hunter. He's also older than me.

Chief Mechanic: Hunter, did your boy say he was too young to be a grandfather?

Hunter: Yes, more than once. I don't know why he's freaking out. I don't think he's a bad person to have as a step grandkid. I like him.

Chief Monkey Lover: Grandnephew. I told you about what happened in the other timeline.

Hunter: That you thought he died sending you all back to 2018.

Hunter: For the guy not in the room, Leo just threatened to withhold sex and threw a pillow at me. He is cranky when he only gets three hours of sleep. He was too stressed out to sleep past 1:30 AM.

Chief Mechanic: That threat never works. I don't think Deke is a horrible person to have as grandkid/grandnephew. The kid is annoying. I'll give you that, but he has grown on me a little after I read his report.

Chief Mechanic: I still want more details about how he ended up Chief Creative Officer at SI. I think Pepper 2023 might be in Mrs. Robinson mode again after reading between the lines. Although I am quite sure this guy won't fuck around with an overrated YA actress.

Chief Monkey Lover: Unfortunately, I can't read that report because Ana will not let me access it. What do you not want me to know?

Chief Monkey Lover: Is Simmons dead in the other timeline? Did she disappear during the Decimation? A lot of my friends were wiped out of existence, including Daisy, Bobbi, and Mack.

Hunter: If you're trying to soften the blow, you maybe could've kept me from reading about my ex-wife disappearing in other me's arms. I didn't want to read that account from my other-self. That you could've blocked.

Chief Mechanic: No, she did not disappear during the Decimation. I didn't know that there were accounts from Hunter prime in there.

Chief Monkey Lover: Good.

XXXX

Hunter: I'm taking this off of group chat because I know you're hiding something.

Hunter: What are you not telling my boyfriend? Because he is worried. That's why he had trouble sleeping and is up reading files at 2 AM, which means I'm up at 2 AM, and not for the right reasons.

Hunter: Locking him out of specific files didn't help that. You can't keep the truth from people. I didn't mean it when I said that I wish you would've blocked me from finding out about Bobbi. I'm glad I know the truth. Although I wish I didn't stumble across it reading another Hunter's diary. He really should know better than to store that on the Stark server.

Chief Mechanic: I wasn't trying to keep the truth from Leo. I wanted to have a conversation in person about it. It was going to be tonight until Jeffrey decided we just had to do a bunch of talk shows in the morning. We need the world to love us since we are about to go up against a genocidal purple alien.

Chief Mechanic: I would've handed the Hunter diaries to you personally in the morning if I thought that reports from Hunter would be on there. He really should know about the server. I didn't want Leo to stumble upon it accidentally like you did. Ana already told me about the kids freaking out about finding out all of them were victims of the Decimation.

Hunter: All of them?

Chief Mechanic: Yes. Even BITC and May. Aunt May not Agent Scary.

Chief Mechanic: Agent Scary survived, but lost most of the team, buried Phil again, and married Steve. That May also adopted a bunch of Inhuman kids to keep them out of the system and probably away from whatever evil things Ross was trying to pull off. Who knows what that man could be doing? Perhaps something just this side of super-villainy.

Chief Mechanic: Although I heard my platypus is Vice President. I'm so proud. I hope he's mitigating the damage.

Hunter: Shit. What about me? I know he survived because I read about what happened to Bobbi.

Chief Mechanic: In addition to obviously being alive, the other Hunter is apparently my nanny. I'm not even sure how that happened. That's probably why his diary was on the Stark server.

Hunter: I'm fantastic with kids. I volunteer at Midtown all the time. The children love me.

Chief Mechanic: Because you're less terrifying than Agent America. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that I have a biological child. You know, made the old-fashioned way.

Hunter: Not you, other you.

Chief Mechanic: It's still hard wrapping my mind around it. I'm sterile. I've accepted that, or at least I thought I did.

Hunter: So why can't my boyfriend know what happened to Simmons?

Chief Mechanic: I really feel like you should call him husband. You don't wanna slip up in public. Jane would kill you.

Hunter: Stark!

Chief mechanic: That reminds me that Aunt May is going to Malta with Ms. Marvel's family because things will get dangerous very soon. I would like them out of the blast zone. It won't change things if the snap happens, but Yo-Yo prime died during the battle in the other timeline. I would like to avoid more of those sorts of casualties.

Hunter: Was Simmons one of those casualties? Did she die during the battle or at some other time?

Chief Mechanic: She's still alive in 2023. Although I wouldn't exactly refer to her as well.

Hunter: What does that even mean?

Ana Jr: Deke inquired about what program Flash utilized to reach the 10-month sobriety mark. He needs advice on how to deal with his Nana's alcoholism.

Chief Mechanic: Oh, now you talk. Are they really in lab six? Are they doing science without me? Or are they just having an orgy? It feels weird that I prefer the orgy. That means they're doing standard teenage stuff and not preparing for an apocalypse that I can't protect them from.

Ana Jr.: They are working on an enhanced communications project. They're trying to get a message to Agent Johnson.

Chief Mechanic: OK, now I know that I want you and the husband to check on the kids.

Hunter: You don't want Leo to find out that Simmons fell apart without him? That's why you're hiding everything from him, including Deke's notes, that might be extremely useful.

Chief Mechanic: Not hiding but deciding the best way to tell him in person. Obviously, that's not working, so I'm just going to unlock everything. You might want to have one of the therapists on standby for this.

Chief Mechanic: I just didn't want your husband to second-guess his choice not to go back to the other timeline or at least his decision not to find a way to get back to that timeline.

Hunter: Too late. Leo has been second-guessing his choices since he got here. What do you think led to his extended stay in mental health rehab? Or the fact that he had to take the Stark industries job because it would be less stressful.

Chief Mechanic: I'm still amazed by the fact that a job at SI is considered less stressful. The SI board is worse than Congress. Although I never missed out on fiancé fun time due to having to brief the president.

Hunter: I'm sure he made up for it by now.

Chief Mechanic: Twice, it would've been three times, but I'm old.

Hunter: It's not as bad now since most of the worst board members are gone, thanks to the Pride fiasco last summer. However, I don't think needing to prepare for an alien invasion was ever part of your duties at Stark Industries. It is less stressful.

Chief Mechanic: Actually, yes. After the Battle of New York, we wrote a bunch of contingency plans. It's also why we started working on the upstate campus right away, and we never fully moved everybody into the tower like initially planned. I felt like we would be less likely to deal with another alien invasion at the new campus. The board was furious at the time. Not so much now that we're making a lot of money leasing the tower to the federal government for the ATCU.

Hunter: You really are a futurist.

Chief Mechanic: It pays to be prepared.

Hunter: Let me prepare Leo for what's going to happen. Because he's going to have to interact with Deke. They can't keep just glaring at each other from across the room. Simmons invited him to the anniversary party. It's been rescheduled.

Chief Mechanic: Of course, she did. I suggest telling her to reschedule it until after the Apocalypse.

Hunter: To avoid this Apocalypse, we both know that Leo will have to work with the grandkid. At a minimum, we want Laura back.

Chief Mechanic: I hate it when you have a point. You already know about the alcoholism from Ana. We are going to have to look at your protocols about keeping secrets.

Ana Jr: Of course, Sir.

Chief Mechanic: I already must deal with one sassy teenager. I don't need another.

Hunter: I thought it was up to six at last count.

Chief Mechanic: Five, BITC's not allowed over anymore.

Chief Mechanic: Anyway, Simmons did not handle Leo's apparent death very well or apparently at all, according to Daisy's log entries before the snap. She was in denial about it. She kept saying that as soon as they were done, they would go and get the Fitz in space, and everything would be fine. Especially when she found out about the grandkid.

Hunter: Then, the purple one came?

Chief Mechanic: Yes, and then everything went to shit. Although at least the Earth was still in one piece. I guess that's the timeline that Monkey Lover two was trying to avoid.

Hunter: Yes.

Chief Mechanic: So, after that, Simmons and the grandkid join a group called Guardians of the Galaxy to look for Monkey Lover 3.

Chief Mechanic: That's a pretentious name for a group of superheroes.

Hunter: They found dust?

Chief Mechanic: Yes. Apparently, she became obsessed with time travel and bringing back Fitz as well as working her way through the compound alcohol supply.

Hunter: Which Fitz was she trying to bring back?

Chief Mechanic: Honestly, either. I don't think she cared which. The other Avengers were trying to get the stones, and she turned it into a mission to get Fitz back. At least that's what Deke told Ana. He's not exactly happy with his Nana.

Hunter: You don't want Leo to know all of that?

Chief Mechanic: I want to tell him myself when we arrive tomorrow or rather later today at this point. Although I'm sure he just read all of this over your shoulder because I would totally be doing that with Stevie bear.

Chief Mechanic: Actually, Stevie bear is reading this over my shoulder completely naked. He may have been the one who made me unlock everything for the Chief Monkey Lover. Not for the kids. I really wish I could be doing things with him instead of having to have this conversation with you.

Hunter: Leo just got into Deke's report, which is apparently a transcript of the conversation he had with Ana.

Chief Mechanic: You might want to read that yourself.

Hunter: Did you know that other me is sleeping with other Simmons? Apparently, they have an arrangement.

Chief Mechanic: So that's what arrangement meant.

XX

"You're mad at me?" Hunter asked Leo after sending his last message to Tony. He was not expecting Leo to lean over their bed and kiss him.

"Not for taking care of her when I couldn't be there. I'm never going to be mad at you for doing that. I'm just mad at myself."

"You didn't know how time travel actually worked. You thought you were just earlier in the timeline." Hunter placed a reassuring arm around Leo, pulling him closer to him.

"Two days ago, Dr. Strange asked me if I wanted to go back, and I said no. I wanted to stay here with you. I love you." The words were punctuated with yet another kiss.

"Don't feel guilty about that. Especially because apparently there is already another you there." Hunter feels awful for being so happy about that, but there was another Leo, so he could keep his.

"Who was a victim of the decimation," Leo groaned.

"We'll fix that. Then the recently undusted you can have a poly relationship with other me and Simmons. It's good that you and Simmons have similar taste in men." Leo laughed at his words. "And I know you will fix this as soon as you go through the notes."

"I just wish I could talk to her to explain."

"Maybe you will," Hunter kissed Leo once more. "Now, put the Stark pad down and let me relax you so you will sleep for a few more hours." Before he could successfully push down Leo's boxers, Hunter's hand was pushed away."

"Actually, I think we should go down to check on the kids."

"It's almost nearly 3 AM, and I feel like I need to tuck you into bed again. Ana, are they working on anything dangerous down there?" Hunter was hoping the AI would tell them that there was nothing they needed to worry about.

"They are currently trying to create a trans-dimensional communication device." With those words, Hunter knew there wouldn't be any more sex that night.

"I'll just go put on a shirt," Hunter sighed in acquiescence.

"And maybe some pants."

To be continued.

* * *

OK, you get to help me pick out a codename for Hunter of the good timeline. I have a codename for a bad timeline Hunter but I'm also open to more suggestions.


End file.
